


Butterflies: Season 1

by KHGiggle



Series: Butterflies [1]
Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Animated (2007)
Genre: AU, Alternate Timeline, Commentary from Vector Prime, Optimus is totally in this, Techno-organic - Freeform, Transformers - Freeform, animated, what if, wild child - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-09-13
Updated: 2014-09-27
Packaged: 2018-02-17 07:15:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 12
Words: 73,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2301119
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/KHGiggle/pseuds/KHGiggle
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A massively AU Animated Universe where Bumblebee and Ratchet get along, Sari is a wild child, Wheeljack makes things explode, and Vector Prime provides commentary.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Crash and Burn

Ratchet groaned as he walked into the bridge and caught sight of what Flareup was watching. “Why are you watching history vids again?”

Flareup shrugged. “Because you won’t tell me what really happened.”

Ratchet rolled his optics. “I will never understand younglings’ fascination with the war.”

“Hey, I’m not a youngling!” protested Flareup. “And I wouldn’t keep watching these if you would just tell me what happened.”

Ratchet grit his denta and opened his mouth to lecture her about how those events were not something he was ever going to talk with her about.

However, before he got the chance to do so a frantic Bumblebee dashed into the ship from outside. “Ratchet! Wheeljack is messing with the space bridge!”

Ratchet cursed and ran out of the ship. Sure enough, Wheeljack was doing something to the control panel of the space bridge. Ratchet couldn’t see what exactly, but it was causing sparks. He formed his magnets and quickly yanked Wheeljack away from the console.

Wheeljack yelped and struggled for a second before realizing it was just Ratchet’s magnetic field. “Hey! What’s the big idea?”

“You were messing with a space bridge again! You know we can’t afford to blow those up!”

Wheeljack made an annoyed sound. “Oh come on, not everything I touch blows up!”

“Pretty close to everything,” muttered Flareup as she stepped outside. “Why is he here again?”

“Don’t ask.” Ratchet unceremoniously dropped Wheeljack. “Bulkhead…” He trailed off.

Bulkhead waved from where he was hanging off a cliff by his wrecking ball. “Hi Ratchet.”

“I’ll get him,” said Bumblebee, jumping to the top of the cliff and blasting the rocks.

“How did that happen exactly?” asked Ratchet.

“He tripped and his wrecking ball snagged on the cliff face as he fell.”

Ratchet and Flareup both jumped at the sudden voice. Flareup growled and turned to glare at the speaker. “Do you always have to do that?”

Prowl raised an optic ridge. “Do what?”

“Sneak up on us like that!”

“I wasn’t sneaking,” said Prowl like it was the most obvious thing in the world. “I just prefer to be silent. You should try it sometime.”

“Why you-”

Ratchet pulled Flareup back before she could start anything. “And why didn’t you do anything about Wheeljack?”

“I didn’t want to get caught in an explosion.”

“Hey!”

Ratchet made an annoyed sound. “Just get back to work so we can get out of here.” He’d thought repairing space bridges would be nice and peaceful, just what he wanted for his retirement.

It probably would have been if he hadn’t been stuck with this particular crew.

At that moment, Bulkhead fell to the ground. It looked like half the cliff fell on him too. Bumblebee winced. “Oops. Sorry about that! You okay?”

“Yeah, just give me a klik.” The pile shook for a moment before Bulkhead burst out. He shook his head to get his bearings. “So…I’m just gonna go look at the space bridge.”

So Bulkhead started working on the space bridge while the others got rid of the debris surrounding it. This was what inevitably happened on their stops. It was rare for anything interesting to happen. Ratchet found the monotony and expectations relaxing after all the scrap he’d had to go through during the war.

Of course something had to happen eventually. Something always happened. It was usually something small, like an argument between Flareup and Bumblebee or Wheeljack trying some new invention and accidentally blowing himself up again. Ratchet could deal with that.

Most bots would not be able to deal with what happened next.

Bumblebee blasted some rock apart. He paused when he noticed it was glowing. That had never happened before. Since Wheeljack happened to be nearby, Bumblebee figured he should make sure it wasn’t anything explosive and peered into the large crack. He didn’t see anything that looked explosive, just some sort of orange container with handles and glowing blue lines. Then again, this was Wheeljack he was talking about. He could probably make a rock explode.

Wait. That actually happened once. Bumblebee made a face at the memory and quickly shoved it to the back of his memory banks. “Hey Ratchet! I found something weird! Will you take a look at it?”

Ratchet rolled his optics and made his way over, expecting it to be an oddly misplaced piece of machinery.  
He wasn’t expecting what he found instead.

When Ratchet saw what Bumblebee had found, it only took him a klik for him to figure out what it was. It took another cycle for him to accept that what he saw was real and not some sort of virus-induced hallucination.

“Uh…Ratchet?” Bumblebee gave the medic a worried look. “You okay in there?”

“What is that doing here?!” Ratchet’s shout made everyone jump. “We sent it through…” He trailed off and looked up at the space bridge. A look of realization flashed across his face. Then it became completely serious. “We need to leave. Now.”

“But we’re not done fixing the space bridge,” protested Bulkhead.

“I don’t care!” snapped Ratchet. “This is much bigger than a lousy space bridge in the middle of nowhere!”

“What’s got you in a bender?” asked Wheeljack, giving the large crack a quick glance as he walked over. Then he froze and did a double take. His optics widened in shock and he turned back to Ratchet. “You transform. I’ll load it.”

“Am I missing something?” asked Bumblebee.

Ratchet transformed. “We’ll explain once we’re back on the ship. Now move!”

Bulkhead climbed down as the others loaded the strange item into Ratchet’s vehicle mode. Then everyone transformed to vehicle mode and made their way back to the ship as quickly as they could.

Once they got there, they unloaded the odd item into the cargo bay. The younger bots stared at it in confusion. “So, what is it?” asked Bumblebee.

“You don’t recognize it?” asked Wheeljack. “What are they teaching you young bots?”

Ratchet vented. Things were definitely going to be getting a lot more complicated now. And to make matters worse it was with a bunch of young bots with him that didn’t deserve to be dragged into the inevitable mess that was sure to result. “It’s the Allspark.”

Bumblebee’s optics widened. “The Allspark…As in the Allspark?”

“Didn’t you guys send it through a random space bridge to win the war?” asked Flareup, remembering one of the key points of her war vids. “It should be lost for…the rest of our lives!”

“It might have drawn us here,” mused Wheeljack. “It has some odd properties.”

“So…Do we bring it back to Cybertron?” asked Bulkhead. “Or do we have to finish the repair schedule first?”

“Cybertron,” said Ratchet and Wheeljack at the same time.

You knew it was serious when the two agreed on something.

They instantly ran to the control room. Everyone took their assigned positions. Wheeljack started typing something into the computer. “C’mon, c’mon…Why doesn’t Perceptor ever answer his phone?!”

“Picking up a ship on the starboard side,” said Prowl. “It appears to be a very large one too.”

“We better get out of here!” added Bumblebee

Wheeljack was still trying to contact Perceptor. “His intern’s not picking up either!”

“Try a different code then!” shouted Ratchet.

Wheeljack paused as he thought for a moment. He typed in another code that he remembered was important even if he wasn’t sure who’d pick up. After a few terse moments of waiting, a young mech’s face appeared on the screen. “Rodimus Prime here. What’s the problem?”

“We found the Allspark!” shouted Bumblebee.

Rodimus blinked. “Really?” Wheeljack quickly brought up the image of the cargo bay that displayed the Allspark. “Well, that’s good news.”

“The ship is giving off a Decepticon signal,” interjected Prowl.

“Wait. There’s another ship?” asked Rodimus. “Scrap. Try to evade it while I get a rescue party. We’ll be there as soon as possible.” His image disappeared.

“The Decepticon is closing in on us rapidly,” said Flareup. “Start evasion tactics?”

“Hold that thought,” said Ratchet. He turned to a panel and typed in a few commands. “Activate Omega protocols.”

“Negative,” said the computer. “Omega protocols have been disabled in keeping with energon rationing practices.”

Ratchet’s optics widened. “What?!” He whirled on Wheeljack, who waved his hands in front of him in a completely ineffective pacifying attempt.

“Hey, don’t look at me! I didn’t know about that!”

“Uh, guys…” started Bulkhead. He pointed out the window. “Is that what I think it is?”

A rather jagged looking and dark ship could just be seen. It was very recognizable to anyone familiar with the Great War. Ratchet groaned. “It just had to be the Nemesis.”

Flareup’s optics widened. “The Nemesis? Isn’t that Megatron’s personal ship?”

“Yeah.” This was looking bad. Ratchet was thinking of escape and battle plans and pushing back some of his more traumatizing war memories.

However, before he could bark out any orders, they felt a very large thump on the roof.

Wheeljack turned on the camera on the roof. It was Megatron, and he was using his fusion canon to melt through the roof.

“We’re all gonna die aren’t we?” deadpanned Bumblebee.

“No!” shouted Ratchet.

By this point, Wheeljack was using the mechanical arms on the roof (usually for moving heavy debris or operating in dangerous areas) to hold Megatron in place and keep him from trying to melt the roof. He knew it wouldn’t last very long, but it would at least buy them some time to plan some sort of defense. “Well, what are we gonna do? He’s gonna get in here eventually!”

Ratchet groaned. “I know!” Fortunately, Ratchet had come up with a couple of ideas.

Unfortunately, Megatron blew up just then and took most of the roof with him.

“It wasn’t me!” Wheeljack shouted frantically.

It got worse; the explosion was strong enough to send the ship spiraling back towards the small asteroid they’d taken off from. Flareup tried to steady it, but it looked like the explosion had taken out a thruster or stabilizer as well. It looked like they were going to crash.

Then a bright flash of light enveloped the ship before shooting off towards the space bridge. The space bridge came to life, lighting up as a portal was created…

Which was pretty impressive since Bulkhead had commented it was not operational.

Before any of them had a chance to react to this, they flew right through the space bridge.

There was a brief moment of weightlessness and stillness. Then they were back in space and could see a planet of mixed blues and greens and white. Interestingly enough, they’d been slowed down some. They were still moving, and it looked like they were probably going to crash on the planet, but at least Megatron and the Decepticon ship were gone.

“So, is that it?” asked Bulkhead. “That was really…strange.”

“Looks like we really lucked out,” said Bumblebee. “We found the Allspark and survived Megatron!”

“Does anyone else find it suspicious that he just blew up?” asked Wheeljack. “That doesn’t just happen, not even with me. There has to be a reason.”

Ratchet nodded. That had been bothering him as well. Wheeljack and Flareup knew better than to mess with the ship. So what had caused this? As he wondered, he noticed something. “Where’s Prowl?”

Before he could look for the errant ninja, something grabbed him and slammed him into the wall. As his vision cleared, he realized it was Megatron, who had survived the explosion. He was missing an arm, but that didn’t mean much considering who it was. “The Allspark, Autobot.”

Ratchet just glared at Megatron. Wheeljack took a couple of cautious steps back before throwing one of his grenades at Megatron’s back.

Normally, Megatron would’ve grabbed the grenade and thrown it back, no problem. However, this time, he had to let go of Ratchet to grab the grenade.

While Wheeljack dodged the grenade, Ratchet put as much distance between him and Megatron as he could while forming his magnets. Then he used them to pull the lever that controlled the artificial gravity. Everyone started floating towards the ceiling. Ratchet used his magnets to stick to the ceiling. Megatron jammed the remains of his arm into the ceiling to stay in place.

Bumblebee held onto his seat. “Wow, he’s even uglier up close.”

Megatron ignored the quip. Instead, he was determining which Autobot was the best fighter. Considering that the only attack had been a grenade so far, he was not impressed. He threw a sword at the femme, who’d just transformed her servo into a gun. She screamed as it cut into her chest.

Then Megatron’s wrecked arm exploded again.

Ratchet used his magnets to hold the surprised Megatron in place. “Bulkhead!”

Bulkhead got the picture and fired his wrecking ball at Megatron. It did hit him, but Megatron grabbed the line and, bracing himself against the control panel, used it to throw Bulkhead into Wheeljack, causing them to tumble into the cargo bay.

Megatron turned his attention back to Ratchet, who was now using his magnetism to try and keep Megatron away from him. That combined with the zero gravity was slowing him down, but he was still making his way over to Ratchet. Bumblebee was shooting at him, but his stingers didn’t seem to be doing any damage.

Just then, Prowl appeared from seemingly nowhere and made to attack Megatron. Megatron swiped at him with a sword…only for it to go through him. The Prowl fizzled and disappeared as the real Prowl came at him from an entirely different direction.

The shuriken he threw did connect, but they only left scratches. Megatron hit Prowl with the sword’s blunt side and into the gravity lever.

The gravity came back on, and everyone slammed into the floor. Before Ratchet could react, Megatron had dashed over to him and landed a very strong punch to Ratchet’s midsection. Then he slammed Ratchet’s head into the wall hard enough that Ratchet was knocked unconscious.

Prowl, who’d been sneaking up on him, tried to attack again, Megatron spun, knocking Prowl into one of the control panels. Then Megatron ran him through with his remaining sword.

Megatron briefly considered taking out Bumblebee. The minibot was frozen from terror, but he could recover. Megatron threw a piece of wreckage that was too big for Bumblebee to dodge. Now he could find the Allspark and get out.

Even he can be thrown for a loop by these many injuries.

Since the Allspark obviously wasn’t in the bridge, Megatron made his way out and followed the voices.

“Blow it up? That’s crazy!”

“It’s better than the alternative!”

That sounded about right. Megatron picked up the pace and shoved open the door to the cargo hold. Wheeljack and Bulkhead were standing over the Allspark. Bulkhead’s optics widened. “Uh oh…”

Wheeljack threw a couple of grenades he was holding at Megatron. Megatron dodged one, grabbed the other, and threw it back. Wheeljack and Bulkhead scattered. The Allspark was left unguarded.

That was when the ship started entering the planet’s atmosphere. Everyone and everything was thrown back. Wheeljack recognized the feeling from other re-entries and threw a dud grenade at the airlock button. The door snapped open and promptly started sucking various items out of it. Wheeljack was partially sucked out before he grabbed onto the doorframe. His optics widened as he saw the Allspark fly towards him and quickly grabbed it with one servo, holding onto the doorframe as tightly as he could with the other. He grunted as several pieces of cargo hit him, mainly in the face.

Then the arm holding the Allspark jerked back. Wheeljack glanced behind him and saw that Megatron had grabbed onto the other handle of the Allspark. He quickly turned back around. “Help!”

Megatron ignored the shout. Instead, he focused on opening the Allspark. If he could open it, he should be able to-

*Clang!*

Megatron was sent flying out of the ship as Bulkhead’s wrecking ball collided with him. The last Wheeljack saw of him, he was bursting into flame due to the speed of the reentry. Wheeljack quickly grabbed onto the wrecking ball and line as Bulkhead reeled it in, kicking the airlock button to close the doors as he was pulled in.

He practically crashed into Bulkhead, but neither complained. “Nice aim.”

Bulkhead grinned. “Yeah, usually I miss!”

Wheeljack picked himself off, noting that the centrifugal force wasn’t as bad. “Reentry isn’t as bad now. Better go check on the others. Primus knows Megatron must have done a number on them.”

It still took some careful maneuvering, but they managed to make it back to the cockpit.

Ratchet had managed to regain consciousness at some point and had presumably used his magnetic powers to hold everyone in place and free Bumblebee from the machinery holding him in place. He had now made his way over to Prowl and was looking over his injury. “I’m surprised he didn’t impale my spark chamber,” grit out Prowl.

“He must’ve been thrown off by his injury,” muttered Ratchet. So was he. He was doing his best to ignore the pain in his chassis and head. He briefly noticed the Wheeljack and Bulkhead had reappeared. “Get Flareup to a stasis pod! Stat!”

“Right,” said Wheeljack. He hurried over to Flareup. Bumblebee, who’d simply been pinned under the large piece of wreckage Megatron had thrown at him, was using one of his stingers to weld shut the leaking energon lines. “She stable?”

“I don’t know!” shouted Bumblebee.

“You’re welding me and you don’t know?!” shouted Flareup.

“Yep, she’s okay,” noted Wheeljack. He took a moment to inspect the lines, decided that they were not leaking, and picked up Flareup and her arm. He paused as he passed Ratchet and Prowl. “Give me a second.” He handed Flareup to Bulkhead. “Put her in a stasis pod and stay there.”

Bulkhead, who was visibly stunned by the carnage, just nodded and hurried out of the room. Wheeljack hurried over to Ratchet, Prowl, and Bumblebee. “What’s the plan?”

Ratchet looked at the wound. “I’ll shut down all but his most vital systems to keep the leaking to a minimum.” Prowl groaned at this. “Then you’ll remove the sword, I’ll keep his parts in place, and Bumblebee will weld together what he can until we have to get to the stasis pods. You’ll be piloting to try and guide us to a location that won’t destroy the ship.”

“Got it.”

“Ready!”

Prowl groaned. “Fine.”

Ratchet quickly pulled open Prowl’s helm and, with practiced ease, shut down everything he could without offlining Prowl permanently. Prowl’s head slumped forward. Wheeljack yanked the sword out and ran over the steering mechanism. He grabbed it and pulled back to try and even out and…were those buildings? Was this planet inhabited?

Meanwhile, Bumblebee was welding Prowl’s parts together as quickly as he could.

“Careful! You don’t want to ignite the energon!”

“I know!” It was just that there was so much energon. Bumblebee had never seen so much spilling out of a bot before. He just hoped that he was welding the right parts together. He did not want to find out that Prowl had offlined because he’d chosen the wrong part to weld.

Was this what Ratchet had to go through during the war? No wonder he was so grumpy when they first met.

Meanwhile, Wheeljack had discovered how difficult it was to pilot such a severely damaged craft. He wished he had more time, but at this point it looked like he was going to have to choose between crashing into the city and crashing into the lake.

He hoped the lake wasn’t acidic or something. His decision made, he held the ship steady until he was sure the city was out of range. “Okay, time to get out of here!”

Ratchet took a good look at Prowl’s insides. It looked like it was good enough to keep him out of immediate danger. “Stasis pods! Now!”

He didn’t have to say that twice. Wheeljack grabbed Prowl and made a run for it. The other two were close behind.

Bulkhead was waiting for them in front of Flareup’s pod. He gave Prowl a worried look. “He’s gonna be okay, right?”

“Maybe,” said Ratchet. “Now move!”

Bulkhead and Bumblebee quickly jumped into their pods. Ratchet and Wheeljack took a moment to get Prowl into his pod. Wheeljack, who suspected that Ratchet was hiding at least one injury, took another moment to inconspicuously make sure Ratchet got into his pod as well. Then he got into his pod.

Just in time for the ship to hit the water. The water rushed in through the hole, filling the cockpit and the rest of the ship, making it sink. And it fell with enough force that half the front panels were stripped off.

It was going so fast that it carved a gouge into the lakebed until it finally came to a stop.

And there it sat as time moved on.


	2. Waking Up

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The crew wakes up and realizes the situation they're in.

Wheeljack groaned as he came out of stasis. It felt like something had gone wrong. He onlined his optics. It took a klik for him to figure out why everything looked and felt odd. He was in a liquid, probably water according to his chemical analyzer. Well, water was normally harmless unless circuits were exposed.

Wheeljack walked out and took a moment to consider what to do. He certainly couldn’t let Flareup and Prowl out. Bulkhead and Bumblebee should be okay. He still thought Ratchet had been hiding some sort of injury. He hadn’t seen any cracks or sparks though, and they were going to need him at some point. Still, better to be safe than sorry.

Wheeljack woke up Bulkhead and Bumblebee.

Bumblebee yawned as he came out of stasis. “Why does everything feel weird?”

“We’re underwater,” explained Wheeljack. “It’s normally harmless to us, but to be safe, I think we should drain the ship as much as possible before we wake the others. It can wreak havoc on our circuits if it comes into contact with them.”

After determining that the only hole was in the control room, Wheeljack made sure the door to that room was firmly shut and started using the airlock to slowly drain the ship.

Eventually, Wheeljack managed to get all the water out of the ship. There was still a layer covering everything, but Wheeljack figured it would evaporate on its own.

“Rise and shine!”

Ratchet blinked groggily. “Why does everything look like it’s covered in liquid?”

“We crashed in a lake,” explained Wheeljack. “And since there was a large hole in the control room and we were in too much of a hurry to close the doors, the ship flooded. The three of us managed to get most of the water out though!”

Ratchet checked his internal chronometer. “What the-58 stellar cycles?!”

“Yeah, looks like this ship was damaged enough that it malfunctioned and didn’t immediately bring us out of stasis…among other things.” Wheeljack had a lot of repairs to make.

Ratchet immediately checked on Flareup and Prowl. Good, they were still online. It looked like the mechanism that fed them what little energon they needed still worked. Ratchet took a quick moment to check his current condition.

Looks like his self-repair protocols had fixed the damage while he was in stasis. One less thing for him to worry about. “Help me dry off the repair berth so I can start fixing these two.”

“The only dry items are in the supply cubes. I’ll go see if Bulkhead and Bumblebee have found anything absorbent.”

Supply cubes are designed to stay airtight in all sorts of situations, including water submersion. Since so many things had been ruined by the water, Bumblebee and Bulkhead had been given the job of sorting the cubes, which had gotten mixed up in the fight and crash.

“I’m pretty sure these are parts,” said Bumblebee, setting one box in particular off to the side. Ratchet was probably going to need those.

Bulkhead stared at the contents of his box. “This one is full of grenades too. Why does Wheeljack have so many grenades?”

“I think I heard Ratchet call him a masochist once.”

“Oh.” Bulkhead paused. “What’s a masochist?”

“Beats me.”

The subject of their conversation walked in. “You guys find any absorbing materials?”

“Uh…” Bumblebee took a glance at the boxes they’d managed to get through. “I think there was some in that one.”

Wheeljack dug through it, pulled out some towels, and ran back out.

“Wonder what he wanted those for,” commented Bumblebee. “I know those are made to absorb a lot of liquid, but I don’t think those are gonna make a dent in this mess.”

Bulkhead sighed as he opened another box. “More grenades. Why are they blue?”

Wheeljack started drying off the repair berth while Ratchet opened up Flareup’s pod.

Flareup groaned. “Is the rebooting supposed to be this slow?”

“No, there were some complications,” said Ratchet. “Now, let me take a look at that wound.”

It was a clean cut, so it would be theoretically easy to weld it back on. All the leaking lines had been welded shut so she wasn’t in danger of bleeding out either. However, he had to reconnect those lines to the ones in the arm, which would mean breaking them open again or straight out replacing them entirely. Not to mention that the joint had been cut in two. Ratchet would try to weld it back together, but he wouldn’t be surprised if that had to be replaced as well.

All in all, she wasn’t in any danger. She could move around just fine until he fixed it up. Ratchet slapped a magnetic patch on Flareup and her arm, which was still in gun form. “You’re good to move around. I need to finish repairing Prowl.”

Flareup spared a glance at Prowl, who was the only one still in a pod. She could understand that sentiment. There was a good deal of dried energon covering the lower half of his body. “Right, I can wait.”

“Oh, don’t open any doors,” interjected Wheeljack. “We had to shut off access to some areas of the ship that got flooded with water.”

Flareup froze. “Water?”

“Yeah, dihydrogen monoxide.”

“But…Planets with water are more likely to have organic life forms.”

Wheeljack nodded. “There were a bunch swimming around in here, but I think we got them all out.”

“We’re on an organic planet?” Flareup groaned. “That’s gonna complicate things so much. I’m guessing we can’t leave the planet?”

Ratchet rolled his optics. “No, the ship was too damaged to lift off. In fact, we’re barely getting any power at all.”

“I’m going to work on that as soon as we finish with your repairs,” interjected Wheeljack. “I helped build this ship so I should be able to repair it.”

“And then we’ll leave?” asked Flareup

“Yeah, we need to get the Allspark somewhere safe,” said Ratchet as he started to reactivate Prowl. He carefully caught Prowl before he could fall out. “The water should hide its signal, but I’d still be more comfortable if we could get it back to Cybertron.”

Flareup let out a sigh of relief. “And how long should that take?”

“Hard to say,” said Wheeljack. He did some quick calculations in his head. “It could take orns, even vorns if we’re really unlucky.”

Flareup’s optics widened. “Vorns? Great, and if we keep with protocols…” Flareup sighed. “Well, can’t be any worse than the space bridge stint.”

“That’s the spirit!” cheered Wheeljack.

“Tell Bumblebee to bring me any parts he and Bulkhead found,” ordered Ratchet as examined the damage in Prowl’s chassis. “I need to replace some of these parts before I bring him back online

“Sure.” When Ratchet was in one of his moods, you do whatever he says to do.

Bumblebee and Bulkhead were still sorting through the boxes when Flareup reached the supply bay. “Hey, Ratchet wants you to bring him any parts you’ve found so he can fix Prowl.”

Bumblebee grabbed one of the boxes. “On it!” He ran out.

Flareup sat on one of the unopened containers and glanced at Bulkhead, who was still sorting boxes. “Did you know we landed on an organic planet?”

“Yeah, the little scaly things were kind of cute.”

Flareup stared at Bulkhead. “Scales? Aren’t organics with scales usually dangerous?”

“Nah, they’re too tiny, kind of cute actually. You think Ratchet will let me keep one as a pet?”

Flareup shrugged. “Maybe while we’re on the planet. Taking it off the planet is probably illegal in some way though.”

Bulkhead blinked. “How come?”

“It has to do with avoiding upsetting the food chain or something,” answered Flareup. “The manual wasn’t very clear, and I didn’t really pay attention to that part.”

“Well, I’ll ask Ratchet anyway,” said Bulkhead. “Can’t hurt, can it?”

“Not unless he has his wrench on servo.”

Bumblebee put the box of parts down next to Prowl. “So, is he going to recover?”

“The vital parts I’ve got replacements for,” explained Ratchet. “They’re pretty much the same size through most Autobots, unless your Bulkhead’s size.” Ratchet took out one part that Bumblebee couldn’t identify and looked it over. He must have approved because he put it next to Prowl. “Other parts are going to be more difficult. Since he wasn’t originally a member of the crew, we don’t have replacement parts for his chassis and spinal strut, among a couple of other things.”

“I can take care of that,” said Wheeljack. He pulled out part of a spinal strut from the box. “I modified most of my own body. I’m sure I can do the same with these parts. I might need some extra metal though.”

Bumblebee grinned. “I can go scavenging,” he volunteered.

Ratchet froze for a split second. “Not by yourself you’re not.”

“But-”

“If you go out, it’s with me or Wheeljack.”

“What about Bulkhead?”

“Definitely not.”

“Flareup?”

“Definitely not, even if she wasn’t injured.”

“Prowl?”

“Maybe, but he’s going to be paralyzed after I’m done here and will need some rehabilitation depending on how good a job Wheeljack does on that spinal strut.”

“Already on it!” Wheeljack transformed his servo into a welder and started working on it.

“As I was saying, since we’re all busy, you have to wait to head up to the surface,” continued Ratchet. He removed the part from Prowl and started bolting in the new one. “Now, see if you can find anything else useful in the cargo bay. We’re gonna need it.”

Bumblebee let out an annoyed vent and left.

“You think he’ll listen to you?” asked Wheeljack.

“He better,” growled Ratchet.

Flareup looked at all the boxes of grenades. “Why does Wheeljack have so many grenades?”

“Bumblebee said he was a masochist,” said Bulkhead, grinning as he found a box that didn’t contain grenades.

Flareup gave him a gobsmacked look. “Do you even know what that means?”

“No, do you?”

She did, which was why she was so disturbed. “I, uh, don’t think…” She paused. “Oh Primus, that would actually make sense.”

“What would make sense?” asked Bumblebee as he walked back in.

“Er, nothing. Forget I said anything.” Flareup really wanted to forget that idea. “So, any news?”

“Ratchet said he’d be able to fix most of Prowl, but Wheeljack has to make some changes to replace everything. Then he told me to keep sorting because we’re not allowed out of the ship without supervision.” You could hear the depression in Bumblebee’s voice. “This is gonna be so boring…”

“You actually want to go out there?” asked Flareup.

“Yeah, of course! Wheeljack doesn’t recognize any of the species, so this is probably a new planet! How cool is that?”

“Technically, the planet’s old,” corrected Flareup. “We just didn’t know about it until we crashed.”

Bumblebee waved this off. “Details, details. We’re still the first, and I wanna see what it’s like up there.”

“Well, you need to at least do some recon first,” cautioned Flareup. “Even if it’s an organic planet, it could have dangerous life forms or intelligent life…or some combination of the two.”

“Wonder what the white grenades are for,” mused Bulkhead as he found another box of grenades. That was the fourth type of grenade he’d found. Where did Wheeljack get the materials for these things?

Later:

“That should do.” Ratchet hadn’t replaced everything, but he’d taken care of everything that could kill Prowl. Everything else was just an inconvenience until Wheeljack could finish making replacements. “Time to wake up.” He opened Prowl’s helm and quickly flipped everything that would reactivate him.

It took several minutes for Prowl to come completely online. Ratchet was really worried for a moment. He’d never heard of someone being shut down for as long as Prowl had without any sort of side effects.

However, Prowl let out a groan and turned towards Ratchet. “I’m not offline?”

“Not yet. How many digits am I holding up?”

Prowl gave Ratchet a look. “You’re not holding up any digits.”

“Visual perception’s all right then.”

Prowl made a face. “Why can’t I feel my stabilizing servos?”

“Your neural relay got severed,” explained Ratchet. “I can’t replace it until Wheeljack finishes modifying a spinal strut for you.”

Prowl got a scared look on his face. “You’re going to put something Wheeljack worked on inside my body?”

“He has plenty of experience with that sort of thing,” explained Ratchet, well aware of why Prowl was nervous. “That’s one thing he works on that doesn’t explode. He knows better than that.”

“Right.” It was obvious that Prowl still didn’t like the idea. He paused for a moment. “Did anything…strange happen while I was deactivated?”

“The water we landed in shorted out most of the ship’s circuits,” explained Ratchet. “It’s why we’re not getting any power in here.”

Prowl thought for a moment. “Then how did we get out of the stasis pods?”

“Something happened that reactivated Wheeljack’s pod long enough to open up. Then he manually opened the rest.” Ratchet paused. “I have no idea what caused this, but we’re lucky, especially you. Being shut down that long tends to have nasty side effects. We’re going to have to keep an eye on you for the long term.”

Prowl tensed a bit. “I see…I’ll let you know if anything abnormal happens.”

Ratchet raised an eyebrow at Prowl’s tone but decided to let it go. Prowl was smart enough to understand that it was in his best interest to tell Ratchet if anything happened. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to help sort the supplies so we can figure out what to look for.”

And Ratchet left Prowl all by himself, which was how Prowl liked it.

…Or at least he thought he did. The utter silence was suddenly crashing down on him though. Prowl swallowed nervously, wishing Ratchet hadn’t left so he could ask about what was going on exactly. He’d even take Bumblebee.

Prowl blinked. Wow, he must be desperate. Usually he couldn’t stand the young bot. Okay, he really needed to find a way to distract himself.

“What is that stuff?” asked Flareup.

“It’s kind of gooey,” said Bulkhead.

“I think the water got into this one,” muttered Bumblebee.

“You’re still sorting?” asked Ratchet. There were still a bunch of boxes in disarray in the back. “What’s taking you so long?”

“Hey, you try doing this with one arm,” said Flareup. It’s a valid excuse.

Ratchet glanced into the box. He did a double take. “What is blasting gel doing in here?!”

Bulkhead pointed behind Ratchet. “I guess Wheeljack used it to make those.”

Ratchet turned and saw two dozen boxes of grenades of varying colors. He twitched. “Wheeljack!”

_“I haven’t blown anything up all solar cycle!”_

“Why are there two dozen boxes of grenades in the cargo hold?!”

_“Oh, right, forgot about those.”_

“Well?”

_“I had to get rid of the unstable chemicals from my experiments. I didn’t have any way to do that while we were traveling, so I thought I’d recycle them.”_

“And you kept them in the cargo hold?!”

_“I thought they’d come in handy! I used a couple when Megatron attacked. Didn’t get a chance to grab any extras or I’d have tried a smoke bomb.”_

“Can I have some?” asked Bumblebee.

“No!”

“Aw…”

A whole lot of sorting later:

“Finally…” Ratchet was tired. It had taken forever to organize everything in the cargo bay, but the Autobots had eventually finished. Everything had been moved to a location, except for Wheeljack’s grenades. Wheeljack had been forced to lock them in his room to keep anyone from playing around with them.

“I’m turning in for the night cycle,” said Flareup.

“Oh no, not until I get a good look at your arm joint,” said Ratchet. “I need to see if I can fix it or if it needs to be replaced entirely.”

Flareup groaned, but didn’t argue. It had never occurred to her how much of a pain having only one servo could be.

The two were surprised to hear humming when they entered the med lab, mainly because the only other one there was Prowl. He stopped when he caught sight of the two.

“Were you just humming?” asked Flareup, wide-opticed.

Prowl debated denying it before remembering he was trying not to hide that sort of thing. “Yes.”

“Why?”

“It was too quiet.”

Flareup gapped. “But you like the quiet!”

Ratchet groaned. It looked like he was going to have to look over Prowl’s processor to make sure it was still functioning the way it was supposed to. “I’ll have to give you a diagnostic later.”

He sat Flareup down next to Prowl’s legs and started looking the joint over. He made an annoyed sound as he realized the socket had been destroyed beyond repair. “I’m going to have to replace the socket entirely before I can reconnect the circulatory and neural networks.” There was just one problem. “Prowl, I’m going to have to use the berth for this so I’ll move you to your room.”

Prowl frowned at the reminder that he couldn’t walk on his own. That was both frustrating and humiliating. “Understood.”

It was quick with Ratchet’s magnetic powers. He quickly returned to the med lab to start his work on Flareup. “I’ll just remove the damaged socket for now. The rest can wait until after we’ve had some recharge.”

Flareup winced. “This is going to hurt, isn’t it?”

Ratchet grinned sardonically. “Not as glorious as the history vids make it out to be, is it?”

And Prowl had started humming again.

Next day:

Ratchet sat up from his berth, feeling rather grumpy. It took him a few kliks to remember what had happened during the past few solar cycles. He groaned at the chaos that was now going to be his life for an unknown amount of time. He activated his com. “Flareup, you awake?”

_“I am now.”_

“Report to the medical lab so I can finish working on your arm.” That would take some time.

The first thing that greeted him as he entered the med bay was Wheeljack. “I finished Prowl’s new spinal strut.” He handed said piece to Ratchet. “Let me know if there are any problems with it. I’m gonna go see if I can repair some of the more important components of the ship.” Wheeljack hurried out.

Ratchet carefully placed the spinal strut off to the side just as Flareup walked in. “How long is this gonna take?”

“Why? You got somewhere to be?”

Flareup sighed. “Oh forget it. Let’s just get started.”

Meanwhile…

Wheeljack, despite all his faults, was very good at what he did. He was able to get several of the more important computers back up so that they could receive wireless signals and send out probes.

To Wheeljack’s surprise, the computer was actually picking up signals. “Huh, I guess that makes some sense. I did see buildings when I was trying to pilot. Guess whoever built them is intelligent enough to have wireless communication.” Wheeljack thought a moment. “I should probably send the probe to look for disguises. We’ll have to leave eventually, if only to keep from going crazy…”

Fortunately, the probe was one of the things that wasn’t damaged. Wheeljack quickly programmed it and sent it on its way. “I guess I should fix the reformatting chamber next.”

By the time the probe returned, Wheeljack had finished fixing the reformatting chamber. “All right. Let’s see what it found.” Wheeljack scrolled through the various pictures of vehicles the probe had taken pictures of. Some of them looked pretty interesting and some looked…less than impressive.

“Ooh! I like that one!” Wheeljack selected the picture and stepped into the reformatting chamber. Fortunately, it didn’t have to change too much. He tapped his com. “Hey, Bumblebee, Bulkhead, want to go outside?”

_“Of course!”_

“Then get down here and choose a new alt mode. I got the probe and reformatting chamber working again. As soon as you reformat, we can go outside.”

They were down there in a klik. “So what’ve you got?” asked Bumblebee, already scrolling through the pictures. “Anything cool?” He started scrolling through the pictures nearly too fast to follow. “I’ll take this one!”

Wheeljack took a look at the chosen vehicle, a yellow hatchback with a black stripe down the left slide. It certainly looked like him.

Bulkhead took more time. He had to be more selective due to his size.

_“Ratchet?”_

“Yeah? What is it?” He was paying more attention to Flareup’s socket joint. He’d finished replacing the socket and was now working on reconnecting the various lines and wires.

_“The boys are getting a bit stir crazy so I’m taking them out.”_

“Fine. Don’t get caught. We’ve got enough problems as it is.”

A moment later, a yellow hatchback, a green SWAT van, and a red, green, and white DeLorean came out of the lake.

_“Wow, there’s a lot of organics here,”_ commented Bumblebee. _“They’re running all over the place. You think it’s supposed to be like that or is it an infestation?”_

_“Maybe they’re pets,”_ suggested Bulkhead. _“Some of them are kind of cute. Do you think Ratchet would let me keep one?”_

_“The inside of the ship is pretty much a vacuum at the moment, and most organic life forms can’t survive vacuums. They explode.”_ Wheeljack may be an engineer primarily, but that didn’t mean he was clueless when it came to other subjects, especially with a friend like Perceptor.

_“Oh…”_ Bulkhead was audibly disappointed. _“I guess that’d be a bad idea then.”_

_“No kidding.”_ And not just because of the current environment of the ship.

Wheeljack was trying to watch the inhabitants of this city as he drove through the streets and he’d noticed some things. There were robots, but they were doing various tasks, like walking dogs and cleaning. There were none that were just walking around and enjoying themselves. It was the same with the vehicles. They were just sitting there. They only moved when one of the bipedal organics got into them. Not to mention that when Wheeljack had discreetly scanned a few, he discovered that while the technology was somewhat similar to Cybertronian technology, it wasn’t nearly as advanced and lacked sparks.

All in all, Wheeljack was starting to suspect that the organics were the dominant life forms and the robots were tools and drones they used for certain jobs. It wasn’t unheard of, just…very rare. It usually took millions, possibly billions, of years for organics to reach the level of intelligence where they could construct machines on their own. Something usually happened to wipe out such species before they were able to reach that level.

Not to mention, a lot of the organics were doing double takes when they caught sight of the three Autobots. Wheeljack was pretty sure it was because no one was driving them. It looked like machines of their make required an organic to operate them. _“I think we’d better go back to the ship.”_

_“But we just got out!”_ complained Bumblebee.

_“And I think I jumped the gun on that. Take a good look. The machines of our make need an operator of some kind. If enough of the inhabitants notice that there are vehicles without operators running around, it could cause a panic.”_

_“Does that mean we have to stay in the ship?”_ asked Bulkhead.

_“Maybe not…”_ Wheeljack had been struck by an idea. He just hoped he had enough supplies and that he didn’t accidentally make something explode. _“But it would take some time. We might be able to go out during the night cycle until then, but I’d rather be safe than sorry.”_

Bumblebee groaned over the com link. _“Well, that’s just great! We’re never gonna get anything done at this rate!”_

He didn’t argue though so they all turned around and headed back.

By this time, Ratchet had finished repairing Flareup’s arm. He’d immediately started working on Prowl’s spinal strut. “You sure you don’t wanna be offline for this?”

“Yes.”

Ratchet shrugged. “All right. Don’t say I didn’t warn ya.”

Replacing a back strut was harder than it sounded. Back struts are attached to various points of the inside of armor and additional points inside the internal workings. To remove the spinal strut, you had to first cut through all these attachment points. To add to the difficulty, the neural relay ran through the center of the spinal strut with branches coming out of the spaces to connect to various sensors. You either had to replace the entire neural relay as well or carefully remove it from the spinal strut as you worked. Then you had to do all that in reverse.

Ratchet was hoping he wouldn’t have to replace the neural relay, so he carefully started to pull the neural relay out of the various parts of the spinal strut as he removed them. “Well, it doesn’t look like I’ll need to replace the whole spinal strut, just the lower half.”

“That’s good.”

Suddenly, Wheeljack came in. “Hey, Prowl, can I borrow your hologram projector?”

Prowl raised an optic ridge. “That depends on the reason.”

“The dominant life form on this planet is an organic species. There aren’t any sentient machines. We can’t go out or they’ll notice we don’t have operators and get suspicious. I thought I could maybe make a hologram projector that would make it look like there’s an operator in our vehicle modes.”

“…There’s a spare in my room.”

“Thanks!” Wheeljack left with a wave.

With the young bots:

“No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no…”

Flareup had spent the last half an hour looking at all the pictures the probe had picked up. Unlike everyone else so far, she didn’t seem to actually have any interest in choosing a new alt mode.

“Oh, come on!” complained Bumblebee. “There’s some really cool vehicles there! How could you not find something you like?”

“I happen to like my alt mode,” said Flareup. “If I have to change it, I want it to be something as similar to it as possible.”

“That’ll be difficult,” said Wheeljack as he walked in. “The design of the vehicles used around here are noticeably different from the default alt modes we use.”

Bulkhead looked at what Wheeljack was holding. “Hey, isn’t that Prowl’s hologram thing?”

“Yeah, he let me borrow it so I can make a smaller version of it.”

“How come?”

“If we have holograms of operators inside of us, we can move around more easily,” explained Wheeljack. “Given, we can try operating during the night cycle, but someone could still notice that we don’t have operators, which could cause a big mess.”

“Too bad we can’t stay inside” commented Flareup. “Then we wouldn’t have to worry about most of this stuff.”

“Speak for yourself,” muttered Bumblebee. “I’m all for going outside. I hate being cooped up all the time.”

“That’s good,” said Wheeljack. “Because we’re going to have to scavenge for supplies. We don’t have enough here for all the repairs we need to make, and considering how much work we’ve got ahead of us, I doubt Ratchet’s going to let anyone shirk this duty.”

Flareup growled and slammed her fists into the computer console. “This is completely unfair! Why did we have to find the Allspark and then crash on an unknown planet at the complete mercy of whoever finds us?!”

“Life’s not fair,” deadpanned Wheeljack.

“Yeah,” agreed Bumblebee. “If life was fair, we’d still be in training on Cybertron, and you wouldn’t have blown up Prowl’s ship.”

“Thanks for reminding me about that,” muttered Flareup. Prowl had yet to let that go.

“Anyway, you have to choose a new alt mode,” continued Wheeljack. “If you don’t like it, you can change it back once we get out of here.”

“Oh! Can I choose for her?” asked Bulkhead.

Wheeljack ‘grinned’. “Sure!”

“Great! I saw something I know will fit her!”

Flareup’s optics widened as Bulkhead started looking for the picture. “Don’t I get any say in this?!”

Bumblebee snickered. “Too late…”

“Found it!”

Flareup sneaked a glance at what Bulkhead had chosen. It was a streamlined motorcycle with a cover over it so that the rider had to lean forward to drive it. It did look pretty cool. “It’ll do…”

Much later:

“There. Finally done,” said Ratchet, pulling away from Prowl. “You should be able to feel sensation, but since I patched your neural relay you’re going to be shaky on your legs until you adapt to it.”

Prowl carefully pushed himself up turned so he was sitting. Well, he could feel his stabilizing servos again, although the tingling feeling was new and slightly worrying. He cautiously pushed himself off the berth.

Prowl nearly fell over. The only reason he didn’t was because Ratchet was close enough to grab him. He groaned. “This is incredibly humiliating.”

“Don’t worry. I’m sure I’ve got something you can use for support.” Ratchet set Prowl on the berth and started digging around in the supply cabinet.

Prowl sighed. “How long is this going to take?”

“It varies from bot to bot.” Ratchet pulled out a couple of spare pipes. “The more you try, the faster your systems will be able to adjust, so I suggest you don’t slack off.” He handed a couple of pipes to Prowl. “That should do for now. If you need something sturdier talk to Wheeljack about it.”

Prowl carefully stood up, this time using the pipes for support. It was incredibly awkward, and he was sure he looked like a fool, but at least he didn’t fall over this time. He braced himself and cautiously took a step forward before moving the pipe forward as well. “This could take some getting used to.”

“It’s only temporary,” said Ratchet. “Once you stop falling on your face whenever you try to walk, you can stop using them.”

“And the more I practice, the faster I’ll recover?” Ratchet nodded. “Then I’d better start practicing.”

Given what Ratchet was like, Prowl decided he should leave the med lab for the moment. He paused in thought. Where to go now?

He decided to head towards the shouting.

Prowl managed to stumble into Wheeljack’s lab where Flareup and Bumblebee were arguing and Bulkhead was trying to play peacekeeper. Wheeljack was tinkering at his workbench and ignoring the argument. Prowl carefully maneuvered over to Wheeljack. “What’s going on?”

“Bumblebee is trying to convince Flareup to go outside. Flareup doesn’t want to go because of some kind of military regulation,” explained Wheeljack. “Personally, it seemed fine when I went up there before.”

“I’ve never been to an organic planet before,” mused Prowl. “I’d like to see what it looks like, but I’m guessing I won’t be able to leave this ship until I have better control over my lower body.”

Wheeljack nodded. “If you try, Hatchet will make sure to put a couple of dents in your helm.”

“He’d do that?”

“He’s done that. Several times. Why do you think he got a nickname like ‘Hatchet’?”

“Point taken.” Prowl glanced at what Wheeljack was working on. It looked like a very small projector. His spare projector was off to the side. “I thought you were going to work on that.”

“I just want to get a look at it to see how it worked. That way I could build something similar,” explained Wheeljack. “It won’t be nearly as versatile as yours, but it will be adequate for our needs.”

“Will it explode?”

Wheeljack gave Prowl a look before muttering under his breath about how not all of his inventions exploded. “I’ll test it on myself first if it’ll make everyone feel better.” He grabbed Prowl’s hologram projector and handed it to him. “You can have this back if you need it.”

Prowl raised an optic ridge. “How am I supposed to hold it?”

“Oh…” Wheeljack’s fins flashed pink with embarrassment. “Good point. I’ll just drop it off in your room.”

Prowl nodded. Honestly, that was all he had to say. He wasn’t much of a conversationalist. He looked around. “What’s that on the computer screen?”

“Images the probe picked up. You can look for an alt mode if you want to, but you won’t be using it for a while. Oh, and check and see if it’s finished translating the local language. Then we can start researching their local information network.”

“Well, it’s better than nothing.” Prowl carefully avoided the arguing group and sat down at the computer. He couldn’t believe how tired he was. He’d been walking for barely a megacycle. Actually, he was pretty sure it had been less than a megacycle.

Prowl cycled through the pictures for a while, occasionally checking on the progress of the translation.

Oh, look it was done. Prowl quickly downloaded the new language and used it to look up information on the various vehicles. He was briefly tempted to look up more of those terms, but he didn’t want to stay sitting for too long.

*Clang!*

Prowl jumped slightly and turned around. It seemed Ratchet had gotten tired of the argument and decided to hit Bumblebee and Flareup over the helm with one of his wrenches. “Will you be quiet?! I can hear you all the way in the med lab!”

The two bots muttered apologies under their breath.

“The translation’s done,” said Prowl.

Wheeljack immediately ran over and leaned over Prowl to get a look. “Okay, okay, pretty simple compared to Cybertronix. This should help us figure out the local culture.”

He pulled back, well aware that Prowl liked his space, but now Ratchet was leaning over him. “Good, one less thing to worry about. You almost done with the hologram projector?”

“Almost. You don’t want anyone blowing up, do you?”

Not for the first time, Prowl was glad he was naturally able to produce holograms.

A few megacycles later, Wheeljack had finished the hologram projectors and installed one into his body. Prowl stayed in the room with him oddly enough. He spent some of the time walking back and forth across the room and the rest of the time looking at information on the computer. Wheeljack took a moment to look over the various pictures of humans on the internet, programmed the hologram, checked the local laws, and left for the surface to test it out.

It was night when Wheeljack drove out, and he noticed that the city was considerably less crowded. There were still several robots, cars, and the occasional human walking down the street, but it was a lot less crowded than before. Wheeljack made a mental note that it probably would be safer for them to move about after dark.

Wheeljack drove around aimlessly for a while before finding a junkyard. Wheeljack idled next to the entrance for a moment. One bot’s junk was another’s treasure, after all. Well, he didn’t see anyone else, and he wasn’t picking up anything that might be able to record him.

He transformed and gingerly stepped over the barrier to the junkyard. “Now, let’s see if I can find anything useful.” He was going to need a lot of material to fix that hole in the control room, along with the other repairs that were needed.

“No, no, no…” Wheeljack paused as he looked over a car hood. “This looks pretty good. Hardly any rust on it.”

Wheeljack cut the hood into pieces small enough to slip into his subspace. He started looking for additional pieces. He was quite pleased to find a few that were small enough that he didn’t need to cut them up.

Some wind coursed through the junkyard. Wheeljack ignored it, but he did catch something red out of the corner of his optic. Curious, Wheeljack turned to see what it was.

It was a human perched on top of the fence…At least Wheeljack was pretty sure it was a human. It looked really different from the humans he’d seen so far so he wasn’t sure. It was crouched on the top of the fence and staring right at Wheeljack. There was a veritable mane of red hair falling down its back, which was probably what Wheeljack had seen. The human was covered in some sort of stiff, stitched together material over most of its body, except for its head and arms. The material seemed to conform to its body except for a loin cloth. It was wearing a wooden mask over its face. Its arms were bare and had some scars visible on their very dark brown skin.

Wheeljack stared. This was a human, right? It was the right size and shape and colors. It was wearing manufactured coverings, even if they looked a lot rougher and more primitive than normal coverings. Either way, he really wished he hadn’t been seen. This was something they were supposed to avoid since the human species didn’t seem developed enough for an official first contact.

Well, might as well, try to salvage this. Wheeljack waved his servo in what he hoped was a friendly gesture. “Hi there! I’m Wheeljack. What’s your name?”

The human just continued to stare at Wheeljack. It was pretty eerie. Just as Wheeljack was considering asking if it (Was this male or female?) could speak, it dropped off onto the other side of the fence and darted off.

“Nice meeting you!” That was strange.

Well, might as well finish scavenging before he headed back. He needed to make these trips count.

One trip later, Wheeljack was back in the ship and sorting the metals in his lab. “So, I ran into a human.”

_“You what?!”_ shouted Ratchet.

“Not literally! She showed up out of nowhere while I was sifting through the metal. At least I think it was a she. She just sort of squatted on the fence and stared at me. Didn’t even say anything.” He paused and looked over at Prowl, who was reading something on the computer again. “Do they have ninjas on this planet?”

“Yes, mostly on a small island nation called Japan.” Prowl had decided to base his holoform off the natives of the area since the two practices seemed somewhat similar.

“Okay, maybe she was a ninja.”

_“You’re joking, right?”_

“No, she literally appeared out of nowhere, stared at me for a bit, and then ran off. It was strange, but she didn’t act like she was going to do anything.”

_“You still should’ve been on guard. We’re trying to stay under the radar, remember?”_

“Sorry. She was dressed differently from the humans in the city. I don’t think she’s from the same faction.”

That silenced Ratchet for a moment. _“Do humans even have factions?”_

“I don’t know. I guess I can look it up later. Anyway, she really stood out. I guess she could still live in the city, but I’m sure most of the city’s inhabitants would know about her.”

_“And what do you plan to do about this?”_

“Uh, I’m not really sure. I have no idea where she went or why she would be interested in me…Besides, you know the obvious. All I can think of is to avoid going topside for as long as possible, but I’m gonna have to go out again, if only to gather more supplies for repairs.”

Ratchet made an annoyed sound over the com. _“Well, try to avoid it as long as you can.”_

“How?”

_“I don’t know! You’re the engineer! Figure something out!”_

Wheeljack tossed some metal into the appropriate container. “I’ll try. That’s going to be easier said than done though.” Seriously, he could do all sorts of stuff that most bots wouldn’t be able to pull off, but he had his limits.

Plus there was the weird human. He should probably avoid her…which would be a lot easier if he knew something about her. 

“Hey, Prowl, can you see if you can find anything about a strange looking human in stiff clothes?”

Prowl raised an optic ridge at Wheeljack before finding a search engine and entering ‘strange human strange clothes’.

Well, that wasn’t going to work. Apparently there were more strange humans than they originally thought. Maybe if he added ‘Detroit’.

Nope, he was still getting a lot of results, even after he added ‘female’. “What was the human’s coloration?”

“Brown skin and red hair.”

“What about eyes?”

“I don’t know. She was wearing a mask.”

Prowl made an annoyed sound but entered the coloration information. He glanced at the pictures. “Do any of these look like the human you saw?”

Wheeljack took a break from his sorting to lean over Prowl and scroll down the pictures. “No, no, no, no, no, no…None of these look like her, and the clothes are all wrong.”

Prowl decided enough was enough. “Then maybe you should be the one doing the searching.” He then vacated the chair in favor of finding something else to do.

Wheeljack decided Prowl was right and sat down in the chair, scrolling down the few remaining pictures before returning to the search criteria.

He entered ‘stiff clothes’. It got quite a few results and it was a few minutes before he could find something that looked even remotely resembled her coverings. “She’s wearing an animal’s skin?! Why would anyone want to do that?!”

Wheeljack shuddered as he tried to imagine what that would feel like and continued reading about it. Really, killing animals for their skin. It was positively primitive!

Now, there’s a thought.

Wheeljack entered ‘primitive clothing’. The results were more like what the human had been wearing, but there were still some differences.

Did this mean there were a bunch of primitive humans running around? That was weird. If nothing else, it was unlikely she lived in the city if her coverings were so primitive.

Content with what he’d discovered, Wheeljack went back to sorting the metal. Hopefully, he’d have the correct amount to make the alloy they needed to repair the ship.

After all, what were the chances one of them would run into that particular human again?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _And now, Butterflies presents Questions and Answers with Vector Prime._
> 
> Veccy looked up from a picture he was looking at. “Oh really? How immature can you be?”
> 
> “With how old you are everyone’s immature compared to you.”
> 
> Veccy rolled his optics at the argument. “If I hadn’t been called worse…Let’s just get a move on.”
> 
> “Rest assured, things will start to pick up soon, if you want action. The author just felt that she needed to show how the Autobots are dealing with the immediate aftermath of Megatron’s attack and crashing on Earth.”
> 
> “Now, as to the forms they chose. Bulkhead and Bumblebee chose the same alt modes as canon. Wheeljack is a DeLorean. Yes, she chose that as his alt mode. She thought it looked like his alt mode picture on tfwiki and considers him a mad scientist and went with it. Flareup turns into a motorcycle with a cover, or whatever it’s called. I don’t care what it’s called and the author does not know how to tell one type of motorcycle from another and couldn’t attach names to them even if she did. However, it was inspired by the light cycles from Tron.”
> 
> “The author once read that Ratchet’s nickname is Hatchet. She can’t remember if this is canon or fanon, but she thinks it fits him considering his personality.”
> 
> “The author was going to describe Wheeljack’s holoform. However, that involved a long and convoluted explanation that she decided was too boring so she took the scene out and asked me to describe it to you. He looks like a large Scottish man with a beard and moustache. Because for some reason, she keeps imagining him with a Scottish accent instead of a Brooklyn one.”
> 
> “I don’t get it either,” muttered KHGiggle.
> 
> “You may think that Wheeljack going to a junkyard for supplies won’t work due to how complex the ship is. However, throughout the universe, the elements are all the same. As long as he can get those elements, even if they’re already in an alloy, he can make the material he needs. It just has to be mixed together correctly. Wheeljack is skilled enough to do this most of the time. The rest of the time…You know how it goes with him.”
> 
> _This has been Questions and Answers with Vector Prime._


	3. Enter Starscream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prowl is attacked by Starscream and is saved by an unexpected party.

Starscream jerked out of recharge as the alarms went off. He stumbled over to the computer. “This had better be good…” As he typed into the computer, several readouts were displayed on the screen. Starscream blinked and ran the scanning program again. The result was the same. He grinned.

“Well, well, well, things are finally looking up.”

Earth:

“Okay, does everyone have their hologram projectors in place and their drivers programmed?” asked Ratchet.

“Yes,” said all the others with varying degrees of enthusiasm.

“Do they look normal?” drawled Prowl. He was getting left behind due to the fact he was still having balancing issues in his alt mode. “You’ll get just as many stares if your avatars don’t fit in with the rest of the population.”

“I supervised the designs,” said Wheeljack. “They’re normal enough.”

“I’m just glad that we finally get to leave,” said Bumblebee. “I feel like I’m going to go crazy if I stay here for another second.”

“I still don’t think this is a good idea,” muttered Flareup.

Ratchet groaned. “Look, we need supplies.” Wheeljack had already used up what he’d managed to find last time he went out. He’d suggested having everyone who was able help him out so that scavenging wouldn’t have to be done as often. “Since making contact with the natives is out for the moment, we have to go scavenging.”

“What about that femme Wheeljack ran into?” asked Bulkhead.

Wheeljack’s ear fins flashed pink at the reminder of his odd encounter. “Well, technically she made contact.”

Ratchet’s optic ridge twitched. “We’ve established that she’s probably some sort of outcast so she doesn’t count.”

“Can we talk to her if she shows up?” asked Bumblebee.

“No,” deadpanned Ratchet. He still had enough doubts about the weird human that he wasn’t letting any of the younger bots talk to her. “Now transform so we can get out of here.”

As the Autobots rolled up and out of the lake, they had no idea what sort of trouble was going to happen that day.

Starscream didn’t have very good landing skills. Don’t get him wrong. He’s great at flying. In fact, he’s the best. His personal landings are flawless. It’s ships that he has trouble landing. It didn’t help that the ship he was trying to land was blown to scrap.

So when Starscream tried to land on the planet’s satellite, he crashed so badly that the ship split in two. Starscream had to grumble at that. He’d have to find another way back to New Kaon now.

Starscream eyed the planet. It was a mix of colors, which usually meant a chaotic ecosystem. Oh well, he’d flown in worse. Besides, it would be worth it if he could get his servos on the Allspark.

Prowl was going crazy.

Prowl had always liked the quiet. He hated loud noises and bots who talked for the sake of talking. They were so annoying and distracting. He’d much rather stay in the vacuum of space where sound couldn’t travel. He never would have expected that to change.

…Except it had and now Prowl found he could barely stand the silence for more than a cycle. It was why he’d started humming. Then he’d started tapping his fingers. Then he got up and started moving to try and distract himself. Ugh, he’d even prefer Bumblebee’s rambling to this. How long had it been since the others left?

A megacycle. Prowl wasn’t going to last for much longer.

Prowl tried meditating. He really did. It made it worse so he stopped. That was mildly terrifying. Meditating was something else he liked.

After several attempts to distract himself, Prowl was desperate enough to try going outside.

Of course, that was underwater. There was some sound. It was enough that Prowl felt a bit more comfortable. He took a moment to watch the fish swim by.

Well, what was he supposed to do now? While he didn’t mind standing still, that seemed like a waste of time given his current position. He’d just walk around a bit.

To Prowl’s surprise, it was actually easier to move around in the water than it was in the ship. Maybe having material surround him offered more support. Given, he still needed the makeshift crutches to balance, but it was still better than how he’d been walking for the past few solar cycles.

Well, Starscream couldn’t find any trace of the Allspark. He was still capable of picking up the signal, but he couldn’t pinpoint it. He tried to map out the diameter, but it wasn’t a perfect circle. In fact, it didn’t look like any shape in particular. It was a blob. So Starscream had looked around for anything that seemed like a good hiding place. He figured the Autobots wouldn’t be stupid enough to hide in the city full of aliens. So he was looking over the other areas.

Why, oh why, did the Allspark have to land on a backwater organic planet with thousands of hiding places? Was it too much to ask for him to actually get what he deserved for once?

Down below, Prowl had decided to explore the bottom of the lake as much as he could. He knew for a fact no one else had bothered to, and he thought the information could be useful.

He watched a school of fish swim by. That was another thing. The creatures living in this lake were quite interesting. Were all organics like this? They seemed harmless enough. Prowl thought they were actually quite lovely.

Starscream suddenly started picking up a signal. He closed in on it, but was disappointed when he recognized it as a fairly standard Cybertronian frequency. It definitely wasn’t the Allspark.

Starscream was only disappointed for a klik before his more rational side kicked in. Considering how backwater this place was, it was unlikely there were any other Transformers besides himself and whoever had found the Allspark. This was likely an Autobot. Starscream grinned and dropped.

Prowl jumped as he heard what sounded like a splash. He awkwardly turned around, but didn’t see what had caused it. Now slightly nervous, Prowl suspected it was time to return to the ship. He was sure it was in that direction.

Prowl froze up a split second before Starscream barreled into him. Prowl made a brief attempt to fight back that ended suddenly when he was slammed against a particularly large rock. His vision swam as he focused in on his attacker. The first thing he noticed was the purple symbol on his wings. A Decepticon? Already?

Starscream smirked at Prowl. “You’re one of the Autobots guarding the Allspark? Pathetic!” Starscream had seen the crutches. This mech couldn’t even walk. “Now be a good mech and tell me where the Allspark is, and maybe I’ll let you function.”

Prowl’s processor raced for several kliks as he tried to think of a way out of this situation without giving away the location of the ship and the Allspark. He certainly couldn’t take on a Decepticon on his own, especially since he could still barely walk. He’d have to contact the others, but first he had to get away. He’d probably have to stay underwater if he wanted to have a chance.

Prowl kicked Starscream in the face while spinning the wheel as fast as it would go. It was enough to loosen Starscream’s grip, and Prowl kicked off Starscream’s chassis. Then he threw a shuriken at Starscream’s face.

His kick hadn’t been that strong for obvious reasons, but his aim was as good as ever. The shuriken hit Starscream right in the optic. While Starscream was shrieking, Prowl activated his com link. “This is Prowl! I’m under attack! I repeat! I’m under-” Prowl’s transmission was cut off as Starscream fired his null rays at him, forcing Prowl to clumsily dodge.

Starscream was scowling at Prowl, energon leaking from the mess that had been his right optic. “You’re going to pay for that!” snarled Starscream, firing his null rays at Prowl, aiming to kill.

Fortunately, losing an optic causes a bot’s depth perception to be skewed until the optic is replaced or they get used to the loss. Starscream’s blasts were off enough that Prowl was able to dodge them. He tried to swim away by copying how he’d seen the fish move.

Unfortunately, Starscream decided to use close quarters combat since the null rays obviously weren’t going to work. His thrusters propelled him through the water, and he was easily able to land a punch to Prowl’s chassis.

Given, Prowl was able to angle himself so that it didn’t do as much damage as it could have, but it had enough power that he was sent flying through the water. He was prepared when Starscream came in for another attack and parried it with a chakram. Starscream pulled back his servo, rather than risk something getting cut off. Instead he kicked Prowl up and out of the lake.

Prowl shot out of the lake and fell onto the shore with a long shout. He groaned. “I must be out of practice.”

Then Starscream shot out of the lake as well. He grinned and pointed his null rays at Prowl again. “Can’t fight now, can you?” Prowl tried to get up, but his legs still couldn’t support him and he fell back down before he was even halfway up. “Don’t think I didn’t notice you needed extra support to stand. The only reason you could move was because of the extra density of the liquid. So, I’ll ask you again: Where is the Allspark?”

Prowl grit his denta and gave Starscream a defiant look. The seeker shrugged. “Suit yourself.” The null rays lit up…

And a gray and dark yellow blur collided with him. Starscream shrieked as he tried to get off whatever was biting into his servo. He finally managed to punch it off and got a good look at it as it landed on the shore. It was some sort of organic with claws and fangs and wings, was growling at Starscream, and had energon smeared around its muzzle. Starscream instantly decided it was hideous and glared at it. “You mangy, organic mutt!” He took a pot shot at the creature, but it dodged deftly and jumped at Starscream again. Starscream shot up. “Ha! Try reaching me-” The creature flapped its wings, propelling itself towards Starscream. “Now…” The wolf collided with him again, latching onto his shoulder with his jaws this time while slashing at the rest of Starscream’s body with its talons and claws.

Starscream shrieked and grabbed at the creature’s wings, hoping they were as sensitive as his. They were, and the creature let go with a yelp. Starscream took advantage of this and threw the creature away from him. Then he fired his null rays at it.

One clipped its back leg. Looks like Starscream’s aim was still off…so the creature clamped onto one of Starscream’s servos. Starscream shrieked and started to kick at the creature. “Let go! Letgoletgoletgo!” He finally kicked the creature off of him…

But the creature kept its grip on his servo, ripping it off as it was sent flying back. Starscream shrieked and transformed, deciding he’d lost enough body parts for one day, and flew off.

The creature shook the servo another couple of times before throwing it to the side. It turned its attention to Prowl. Prowl’s optics widened. Even if he hadn’t just seen it tear into Starscream, the energon coating it would’ve made him nervous. It padded over to him. Prowl clenched his servos, mentally preparing himself for the attack that was sure to come. The creature sniffed at him, opened its mouth…

And started licking Prowl’s face. Prowl blinked. “You’re not attacking me?” It responded by lying down next him. Prowl stared for a klik, trying to figure out what he was looking at. He’d been looking at pictures of Earth’s wildlife, but he hadn’t seen anything like this before. It looked like a very large, gray wolf for the most part. However, it also had birds’ legs instead of front legs, tail feathers instead of a tail, and a pair of brown-yellow, feathered wings coming out of its shoulders.

Prowl honestly wasn’t sure what to make of this…wolf? He decided to just refer to it as a wolf for simplicity’s sake. On one servo, it had just attacked and seriously injured a Decepticon. On the other servo, it was now lying next to Prowl and making absolutely no move to indicate it was violent. Prow cautiously raised a servo towards the wolf. It didn’t react. Prowl experimentally scratching it behind the ears. It leaned into his touch slightly. “Huh.”

Then his com flared to life. Prowl quickly answered it. “Hello?”

_“Why didn’t you answer?!”_

Prowl winced and the wolf tensed at Ratchet’s exclamation. “I’m sorry. I didn’t realize you were trying to contact me.”

_“How could you miss that?!”_

“I was distracted.”

 _“Is it a Decepticon?”_ asked Flareup. _“Are we being attacked?”_

“It was a Decepticon,” admitted Prowl, ignoring a swear from Ratchet. “He left.”

 _“Please tell me he didn’t leave with the Allspark,”_ said Wheeljack.

“No, I was outside when he showed up.”

 _“What were you doing outside?!”_ shouted Ratchet. _“You’re not in any shape to be moving about outside without some kind of supervision!”_

Prowl grit his denta. “It was driving me crazy.”

 _“Ha! Told you I wasn’t the only one with cabin fever!”_ crowed Bumblebee.

“Okay, maybe I did have cabin fever,” admitted Prowl. It hadn’t really occurred to him before. Maybe that’s what it was. “Now that I think back on it, it was a bad idea.”

 _“So, how did you get the Decepticon to leave?”_ asked Bulkhead. _“No offense, but you’re not exactly…you know.”_

Prowl vented. “Yes, I know. I wasn’t the one who chased him off. A rather large organic creature did that. I’m not sure what it is exactly.” The wolf gave him a look. While Prowl wasn’t familiar with canine expressions, if he had to choose an emotion, it would be annoyed. “Don’t look at me like that. It’s obvious I didn’t make him retreat. In case you haven’t noticed, I can barely move my stabilizing servos.”

The wolf got up and started sniffing at Prowl’s stabilizing servos, like it was checking to see if Prowl was telling the truth. Prowl didn’t bother to watch and instead looked up at the sky.

…It was a nice sky, a mix of blue and white.

…And the atmosphere was nice. There was no one talking, but it wasn’t quiet. He could hear sounds in the background that he barely recognized. They were probably more animals. And he could hear the wind blowing. It wasn’t the type of quiet he was used to, but something about it was more…peaceful. Prowl hadn’t felt this relaxed since before they found the Allspark.

Prowl was jerked out of his musings by the wolf jerking up and suddenly running back into the forest. A few kliks later, the rest of the Autobots drove up and transformed. Ratchet immediately started looking Prowl over while muttering about young bots not thinking things through.

Wheeljack picked up the detached servo and looked it over. “It looks like this was ripped off. Most of the weapon is still attached. It’s somewhat crushed as well.” Wheeljack turned to Prowl. “You said an organic creature did this?”

“Yes,” said Prowl. “It was clipped slightly, and its internal fluid was red.”

“What sort of organic could rip off a Decepticon’s servo?” asked Flareup. “Scrap. Do we have to worry about this thing now?”

“It stopped acting violent as soon as the Deception left,” said Prowl. “It sat down right next to me and acted docile. I…I think it was intelligent.”

“We can discuss this after we get you back to the ship,” said Ratchet. “Your injuries aren’t too bad, but I have to repair them or they’ll get worse.”

Bulkhead had spent this time looking around the area. “What happened to your crutches?”

“I dropped them in the lake. I don’t know where they went.”

“I’ll find them!” said Bumblebee. He jumped into the lake before anyone could stop him.

“Should we stop him?” asked Wheeljack.

Ratchet shrugged. “Can’t afford to spare anything right now.” He hefted Prowl up, throwing his arm over his shoulders. “Let’s get back to the ship. I don’t want any other Decepticons to fly by and see us.”

The rest of the Autobots transformed and drove into the water. Prowl had to be walked back, but he didn’t complain. This could have ended very differently for him. As it was, he was lucky to be alive.

Up on the moon, Starscream had returned to the Nemesis and was constructing a new servo, which was more difficult than it sounds when you only had one servo. He scowled as the servo shifted under the tool again. “Okay, one more thing to add to my slag list: Flying organics with sharp teeth. Next time I see that…thing, I am giving it a piece of its own medicine!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _And now Butterflies presents: Questions and Answers with Vector Prime._
> 
> Veccy was glaring off to the side. “Why is that there?”
> 
> “I don’t know! You’re the expert on this sort of thing!” shouted KHGiggle.
> 
> Veccy turned his attention back to the reader. “My apologies. Something came up in the past few minutes.”
> 
> “Now, I’m sure you’re wondering about the holoforms. Ratchet and Bulkhead’s are the same as their human forms in Soundwave’s virtual world in canon. Bumblebee’s looks similar to his human form, only older as you have to be 16 to drive. Prowl’s hasn’t been needed yet, but it’s different from the policeman in the show. His looks like a Japanese man.”
> 
> “How ‘bout Sulu?”
> 
> Veccy paused and shrugged. “Sure. Why not? Flareup’s holomatter form is an attractive female human wearing a red and orange bodysuit with a red visored helmet. Sort of like the Prime version of Arcee’s hologram avatar.”
> 
> “Starscream’s servo is now in Wheeljack’s lab. Starscream isn’t getting it back.”
> 
> “Also I am pleased to announce we have our first question from Primusworshipper.”
> 
> _Hey Vector Prime, when are we going to see your brothers and sisters? Or have them as special guests?_
> 
> “That would depend on what you mean by ‘see.’ If you mean just see in this story in general, that could be iffy both because it is still being written and because giving out such information would give away possible bits of the plots, which most would not appreciate.” Veccy paused for a moment. “Although Alpha Trion will eventually appear as he is a canon character in the Animated universe.”
> 
> “Is he actually related to you in this universe?” interrupted KHGiggle. “I’m pretty sure he’s one of the first 13 in the Prime universe, but I’m not so sure about the Animated universe. Where’s that timeline…” KHGiggle took a moment to look up some info. “The Transformers race is 10 billion years old…I can’t find his age right now, but I wanna say he’s like 4 billion years old.”
> 
> Veccy nodded. “Yes, Alpha Trion’s situation is very complicated, even by my standards. He is a multiversal singularity, so he will appear in all universes where Primus and Unicron exist. Unlike myself, he is not always aware of his role, and quite often he is not one of the First Forged. However, he often has some sort of instinctual understanding of the way things need to go in a universe to keep Unicron from wreaking havoc, and he will find himself compelled to fulfill these duties or at least make arrangements so that others can fulfill these duties. In the case of the Animated Alpha Trion, he is not one of the First Forged nor is he aware that he is a singularity. He does have that instinct about what is necessary to keep things from getting out of hand though, and he’s performing his duties quite well.”
> 
> “Are you still answering the question?” asked KHGiggle. “This is sort of getting off subject.”
> 
> Veccy nodded. “Yes, yes, I was just getting back to that. Anyway, I’m not actually related to Alpha Trion in this universe, but he’s an adopted brother of sorts. The siblings that do exist in this universe are Solus Prime, Micronus Prime, Alchemist Prime, Nexus Prime, Onyx Prime, Liege Maximo, and Megatronus. If you want them as guest stars…It’s doable, but this dimension is located outside of space and time, so it would be difficult to bring them here and then put them back when and where I got them from. Then there are some I absolutely refuse to let in here.” Veccy thought for a moment. “The Allspark actually makes it easier to contact my siblings. Perhaps I can have them over as guests when its power is spiking.”
> 
> “What the heck?!” shouted KHGigggle. “Why does TFWiki say that Optimus Prime is one of the first Thirteen?!”
> 
> Veccy’s optics widened. “Excuse me while I have a private conversation with my co-host.”
> 
> _This has been Questions and Answers with Vector Prime._


	4. Dinobot Attack!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bumblebee decides to pay a certain attraction a visit...

It had been two weeks since the incident with the Decepticon. It had been pretty quiet since then. Wheeljack had made some cloaking devices that would hide their signals from any Decepticons that might be looking for them (with minimal explosions!). They’d also relocated the Allspark just to be on the safe side.

They continued their patrols, except for Prowl. Prowl kept working on walking, often in the lake.

So far, nothing else had happened, and it was driving Bumblebee crazy. Yeah, there wasn’t a lot to do when they were fixing space bridges either, but they could visit ports and download things to do. They didn’t have that option here so Bumblebee was bored a lot of the time.

Bumblebee had found a few ways to amuse himself. One was making a list of places in the city he’d like to go. These included a sports stadium, a video arcade, a movie theatre, an auto body shop, and a few other places that looked interesting or unfamiliar.

One of the unfamiliar and/or interesting places was Dino Drive. Bumblebee didn’t know what the purpose was, but it appeared to be some kind of theme park or something that allowed people to see dinosaurs.

Okay, so Bumblebee wasn’t sure what a dinosaur was. He got the impression they were like giant lizards only not. They’d been extinct for 100 million stellar cycles or something like that, which meant no one was ever gonna see a real one, but humans had some sort of fascination with them. From the pictures he’d seen, Bumblebee had to admit they looked unusual enough that he wanted to see one for himself…Which was why Dino Drive was on his list.

This probably wouldn’t have gone anywhere if he hadn’t driven by and noticed that the doors were slightly ajar.

A bored Bumblebee is a very dangerous thing. It’s a fact. It’s why he’s always chatting at the others. He’s a very social bot, and talking with other bots can help alleviate his boredom. This only works for so long though.

Having to stay in the ship at the bottom of the lake with pretty much nothing to do was just killing him.

Deciding that it was worth the risk, Bumblebee nudged the door open and rolled inside. “Wow…”

Dino Drive had been inspired by Jurassic Park, but it had animatronic dinosaurs instead of real ones. As such, it didn’t need the appropriate environment and could be placed in pits like a normal zoo.

The dinosaurs couldn’t move since the power was off, but it was still pretty impressive to Bumblebee. “Whoa…” He zoomed over to a dinosaur with a really long neck. “That thing’s neck is as long as its body!” He zoomed over to a Triceratops. “And that one looks like he could burst through a wall!” He zoomed over to the T-Rex. “And this one…Okay, this one is just scary.”

While Bumblebee was running around Dino Drive, it didn’t occur to him that the security cameras were on and recording his actions. Of course, if a human watched this, they would just think a kid was having a joyride through the park.

It wasn’t a human watching the footage. It was something else entirely; something that decided that Bumblebee had to go.

Bumblebee was happily oblivious to this as he stopped to study some dinosaurs that seemed to have a duck bill. As he was wondering if it quacked, the robots moved to face him. Bumblebee started slightly. “Huh? That’s weird, I thought you guys had to be connected to a running power source to move.” Then he heard a loud noise that got him to turn around.

The duck bills weren’t the only ones that were facing him. Now, all the dinosaurs in the park were looking at Bumblebee. Some were even moving towards him. Bumblebee chuckled nervously. “You guys aren’t upset that I snuck in after hours, are you?”

The dinosaurs answered by spitting fire at him.

Elsewhere…

Ratchet was annoyed. “Where is Bumblebee? He should have been back a megacycle ago.”

Flareup shrugged. “He’s a big bot. He can take care of himself.” Ratchet gave her a look, but apparently decided not to toss something at her head this time. He didn’t need to make more work for himself.

Prowl was walking by as this conversation was happening, using the wall to support himself. He’d finally graduated from using crutches. “Why don’t you contact him and ask?”

“I’m considering it,” muttered Ratchet. He vented. “He’s at that age, but he should know better than to pull a stunt like this under these circumstances.”

“What’s the problem?” asked Flareup. “So he decided to stay out longer than he planned. Big deal. He’s pretty spontaneous. It’s the type of thing you’d expect from him.”

“That’s not the point,” growled Ratchet. He glanced at Bulkhead. “You’re his best friend. Did he mention anything to you?”

Bulkhead thought for a moment. “He just keeps complaining that he can’t go into the buildings.”

Ratchet raised an optic ridge. “Which buildings?”

“Uh, the movie theatre, Tigatron Stadium, a video arcade, this one store that’s got a weird orange and blue color scheme…”

Ratchet groaned. “I hope he didn’t do what I think he did.”

And that was when Ratchet’s com link came to life. “Ratchet!”

“Bumblebee! Where the Pit are you?!”

_“Fire breathing dinosaurs!”_

Ratchet’s processor screeched to a halt. “What?”

_“Giant robot dinosaurs! With fire!”_

“Where are you?” The com abruptly cut. “Slag! Where did he find fire breathing dinosaurs?”

“Well, I don’t know about fire breathing,” said Bulkhead. “But I know where we can find dinosaurs. It’s one of the places Bumblebee was interested in.”

“Then what’re you waiting for?! Move!”

The reason Bumblebee had cut the com link was so he could shoot one of the dinosaurs that had gotten too close. Yeah, they weren’t supposed to run around in robot mode, but he didn’t want to get turned into a molten pile of slag so he figured it was okay this time.

“Why did there have to be so many of you?!” Bumblebbe dashed around a particularly angry dino and had to dodge a jet of flame…Which put him in the path of another flame. It hurt! Bumblebee wasn’t sure how much damage these things would do to him, but he didn’t want to find out. Ratchet was going to kill him as it was!

He yelped as he was hit by a long tail into a guard rail. It was low enough that it acted to trip him and send him sprawling to the ground below.

Before Bumblebee could regain his bearings, something heavy slammed into him. Bumblebee’s optics snapped open. The scary T-Rex he’d been looking at earlier was holding him down with its foot and looked to be getting ready to blast him with more fire.

Bumblebee closed his optics. He really didn’t want to see this attack. He already had a pretty good idea of what was going to happen to him anyway.

***BAM!***

And suddenly the pressure that had been holding him in place was gone. Bumblebee’s optics snapped open. The T-Rex was gone. That was good, even if there were still other dinos closing in. He quickly scrambled to his pedes and noticed that the T-Rex was lying off to the side with a hold in its side. How did that happen?

That question was answered when he heard the sound of ripping metal and turned just in time to see one of the smaller dinosaurs’ head come flying towards him. It appeared that something human-sized and shaped with a red mane had decided to slaughter the smaller dinos.

Wait. Why did that sound familiar?

Oh forget it. Bumblebee wasn’t going to look a gift horse in the mouth. He ran over to his defender and started helping it fight (or at least beat back) the rampaging dinos while watching each other’s back. Good thing too. Bumblebee was aware that his stingers usually were pretty damaging to electronics, but the skin must have had enough insulation to negate most their effects. Really, his impromptu partner seemed to be doing a better job.

Bumblebee glanced behind him and noticed that one of those dinosaurs with really long necks had been taking out.

Really? He was barely holding his own against dinosaurs that were roughly his size, and this random tiny person was taking out bots that were big enough to squish…it? “That is so not fair!”

His distraction cost him as he got hit in the back with a burst of flame. As he let out a pained shriek, his partner darted behind him to take out the source of the attack. Bumblebee nearly collapsed, but was able to support himself on his knee.

Okay, this is not good, not good at all. Bumblebee was gonna need a near miracle if he wanted to get out of here.

A dinosaur getting close to Bumblebee randomly exploded. He blinked. That usually meant…

“The cavalry has arrived!” shouted Flareup.

Bumblebee let out a vent of relief. What a relief. Bumblebee tried to get up to get out of their way but was intercepted by an angry Ratchet. Bumblebee smiled sheepishly. “Hi Ratchet.”

“What were you thinking?! Were you even thinking?! What possessed you to sneak into a human establishment?!”

“Well, I didn’t think the dinosaurs would start chasing me with flamethrower breath!”

A small beaked dinosaur suddenly impacted the wall next to them. “Sorry!” shouted Bulkhead. “My bad!” The two winced as Flareup and Wheeljack blew up two more robots.

“I’m guessing someone’s going to notice that,” muttered Bumblebee.

Ratchet hit Bumblebee in the helm for that comment. “And whose fault is that?”

“Okay, okay!” Bumblebee rubbed his helm. “I won’t do something like this again!”

“You’d better not!”

***Fwoom!***

***Boom!***

***Ka-Ka-Choom!***

“Okay, no more dinosaurs!” shouted Wheeljack. “Time to beat a hasty retreat!”

Everyone ran out of a hole in the wall, transformed, and sped off, avoiding the authorities all the way back to the lake.

The fallout was…rather bad for more than one party.

“That was the second most irresponsible thing you’ve ever pulled!” shouted Ratchet. “You put the entire operation at risk with that stunt! The humans could have seen you! A Decepticon could’ve seen you! What possessed you to pull a stunt like that?!”

Bumblebee gulped. “I was bored?”

Wheeljack winced. “Wrong answer.”

“You put all of us and the Allspark at risk just because you were bored?!” shouted Ratchet. “It didn’t even occur to you that if a Decepticon caught you, you could be deactivated or used as a hostage?!”

“Well, we do have those things that hide our signals,” pointed out Bumblebee.

“That’s not the point! You need to treat this with full seriousness. That means you don’t go gallivanting about wherever you want whenever you want! You’re lucky that fire damage didn’t get past your armor!”

“It’s an easy fix at least,” interjected Wheeljack.

Ratchet rounded on the engineer. “You stay out of this!” Wheeljack held up his servos and backed up. Ratchet returned his attention to Bumblebee. “And what if a human had discovered you?! It’s bad enough that Wheeljack ran into one!”

Something clicked. “That’s what it was!”

Ratchet frowned. “What?”

“Er…” Wow, Ratchet really wasn’t going to like this. “Uh, there was something humanish that showed up with lots of red hair.” What happened to that guy/girl anyway? “I swear I have no idea what it came from! Jt just showed up! And it kind of helped me out!” Bumblebee grinned nervously.

Yeah, the grin didn’t help. “The same human confronted you?”

“…Uh, maybe? It’s not like I know what it looks like, and I was kind of busy trying not to get fried!”

“That seems like too much of a coincidence,” muttered Flareup.

“Well, it helped, right?” asked Bumblebee. There was a long silence. “Right?”

“That’s not the point!” shouted Ratchet. “The point is you put yourself and the rest of us in danger! If that…human hadn’t decided to show up, you’d have been deactivated! Do you have any idea what would have happened if a human had discovered you because you weren’t able to contact us?”

“I’d get dissected like the guy from that movie Flareup found?” Bumblebee realized that was the wrong thing to say as soon as he said it, along with everyone else.

Ratchet looked like he was about to explode, but he didn’t hit Bumblebee like everyone was expecting him to do. He just grabbed Bumblebee’s shoulder, which was still painful due to his burn, and started dragging him out of his room. “You’re grounded!”

“Ratchet’s scary when he’s angry,” noted Bulkhead.

“Yeah,” agreed Wheeljack. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen him that angry before.” He sighed. “He’s probably just scared by the fact Bumblebee was nearly deactivated.”

“It sounds like he’s going to lecture you too,” noted Prowl.

Wheeljack shrugged. “I’m used to it.”

Porter C. Powell was not a happy man. He’d been about ready to head home, but he’d ended up having to stay because someone had decided to bomb the Dino Drive attraction. That was a popular attraction, and he was going to lose money as long as it was closed and he had to have the repairs done. He really wanted someone to pay for this.

“What do you mean you don’t know who did this?!”

Hector Dialonzo, his head of security, winced. “We’re not entirely sure what went wrong, but a lot of the video footage is corrupted or missing.” He pointed a remote at the screen on the other side of the room and turned it on. On the screen, there were various shots of Dino Drive, but several either turned off or turned into static fuzz. Eventually, they all turned to static before cutting off. “The technicians are working on retrieving the footage, but there’s a chance that the cameras were damaged and unable to record anything, in which case it will not be retrievable and we will have to rely on evidence left at the scene.”

Powell made an annoyed sound. “You mean we’ll have to cooperate with the police.”

“Depending on how severe the situation is, it may be necessary to call in other agencies, like the FBI.”

“Absolutely not. You’ll be doing everything you can to prevent this.”

Hector nodded. This sort of thing had become more common when Powell had become CEO. “I’ll do what I can. Hopefully, we can convince the police that this was an extreme case of vandalism.”

Powell nodded. “Good.” He stood up and slipped on his coat. “Have the animatronics salvaged. We’ll rebuild what we can.”

“Sir, there’s one more thing,” said Hector.

Powell made a mildly annoyed sound. “What?”

“This may sound strange, but the animatronics were misplaced.”

“Come again?”

“My son is very fond of Dino Drive, so I’m familiar with the layout of the park,” explained Hector. “Most of the animatronics had been moved to a different location. That wouldn’t be so strange if they were moved only a few feet away, but some of them were practically on the other side of the park. Considering their weight, it would be very difficult to move them. I can’t think of any reason for anyone to want to go through all that trouble. It just seems…pointless.”

“What if someone was trying to steal them?” asked Powell.

Hector paused in thought. “I suppose that could be a possibility, but it would be incredibly impractical and difficult. Not to mention I can’t think of any legitimate reason someone would want to steal a robotic dinosaur.”

“There are plenty of crazy and stupid people around that I’m sure would give it a try.”

Hector fought to keep from rolling his eyes. “Maybe, but if that were the case, I’d consider it a very big coincidence that the security cameras malfunctioned so spectacularly.”

“Just figure out what happened and who caused it,” demanded Powell. “We are not going to let vandals destroy my company’s property. Even if we have to take drastic measures.”

Next day:

“Wow, someone really did a number on these guys,” muttered one of the construction workers. “Real shame. My grandkids love this place.”

“What I don’t get is why someone would want to blow up a dinosaur amusement park,” said another worker, who was driving a forklift. “I mean, I could understand if it was like Jurassic Park. Those things were scary. These are just machines. The worst they’ll do is malfunction and fall over or something.”

“What about explode?”

“I don’t know. Robots usually don’t explode. They just short circuit real bad.”

“I can think of lots of places that would make more sense than this place, like one of those robot factories.”

“Those have been bombed before.”

“Oh yeah.”

At that point one of the men in forklifts tried to lift a pteranodon. He did not expect what happened next. The pteranodon squawked and shot up on its own. It looked around in confusion while the construction workers looked at it with just as much confusion. There was a rather obvious hole in its chest, but other than that, it looked fine.

The pteranodon noticed and pecked at it curiously before deciding it didn’t care. Instead it snapped at the forklift. The human fell out with a surprised yelp.

Everyone’s attention was drawn to a snort and saw a mostly intact Triceratops also climbing to its feet. It shook his head and looked around in confusion as well, wondering what all the small yellow-headed creatures were.

So the pteranodon waddled over and pecked it in the head.

The Triceratops glared and growled at it before swiping at the pteranodon with its horns. The pteranodon jumped back with a shriek.

The shriek startled a nearby brachiosaur awake. As it messily climbed to its feet, its tail knocked into a truck, spilling its contents, an unlucky worker, into a stegosaur.

The stegosaur raised its head to glare at the brachiosaur before deciding to just move out of the way of the larger dinosaur.

By this time, the triceratops and pteranodon were having a fight…or a pissing match. They weren’t really attacking one another, just circling one another while growling and looking for an opening. The brachiosaur looked at them curiously. The stegosaur didn’t seem to care.

Then the T-Rex climbed to its feet. It sniffed a couple of times before zeroing in on the fighting dinos. It roared at them. As soon as it got their attention, it grabbed one of the triceratop’s horns in its jaws and threw it into the wall. Then it gave the pteranodon a look that made it back down.

And that was how the lizard tyrant became the alpha of the five.

Deciding that it didn’t need to worry about the other dinosaurs now, the T-Rex looked around the park, noting the little humans. Yeah, he didn’t care about them. He was more interested in the hole in the wall. He didn’t recall ever leaving the park before (mainly because he didn’t have any memories from before now) and was curious to see what was outside.

The T-Rex lumbered outside with the rest of the dinosaurs following him, the pteranodon hitching a ride on the brachiosaur’s back.

The construction workers stared after the AWOL animatronics. “Uh, who’re we supposed to call for something like that?” asked one of the younger workers. All he got in response were shrugs.

The dinosaurs quickly discovered the road and found their way to the rest of the city. The people there immediately ran away screaming while the dinosaurs explored everything that caught their interest. Of course, with their size and strength, they ended up breaking, crushing, or overturning everything that caught their interest.

At the same time, Captain Fanzone was drinking his morning coffee and eating a bagel. “Attention,” announced an operator over the radio. “Robotic dinosaur attack on Smithson and West.”

Fanzone nearly spat out his coffee before picking up his transmitter. “What do you mean robotic dinosaur?”

“We are getting several calls from civilians about dinosaurs attacking various buildings and vehicles. A call from Dino Drive suggests that they are malfunctioning animatronics,” droned the operator, somehow maintaining a monotone pitch the whole time.

Fanzone groaned. “This is why I hate machines…” He put aside his breakfast, put his police light on the top of his hatchback, and started for the scene of the crime, if it could be called that.

The dinosaurs were still exploring, heading in a northwestern direction. So far, the police hadn’t really been able to do much of anything against the dinosaurs. They tried making a barricade, but an annoyed triceratops flipped them, the T-Rex tried to eat one, the brachiosaur just walked over them, the pteranodon was unaffected as it was still hitching a ride on the brachisaur, and the stegosaur walked through them.

So now the police were simply keeping civilians away from the path of destruction. “Please detour,” drawled Fanzone through a megaphone. “It looks like the dinosaurs are heading in this direction, and they will react violently towards any moving cars.”

And that was when he noticed a familiar limousine heading towards them. Fanzone groaned. “It’s too early for this.”

“What about the dinosaurs?” asked a random officer.

“It’s always too early to deal with something like that,” said Fanzone, gesturing towards the dinosaurs. It looked like the stegosaur had decided to try and eat a lamppost. “At least Powell might know how to fix this.”

Fanzone never really liked Powell, even before he became the CEO of Sumdac Systems. Afterwards…Well, there were a lot of things Fanzone was suspicious about. He couldn’t prove anything though, so he had to deal with Powell and hope that he eventually slipped up.

The limousine pulled up. Instead of just getting out, Powell waiting until his robot chauffeur got up and opened the door for him. Then he took the time to straighten his suit before walking over to the officers. “Captain.”

“Powell. You mind explaining why a bunch of your dino-bots are running around the city?”

As if to punctuate Fanzone’s point, the pteranodon and triceratops started screeching at each other. Fanzone just groaned.

Powell coughed. “Yes, well, we very recently discovered that someone hacked into their programming. Most of it’s hardwired into the computers, but there are some wireless connections that can be taken advantage of.”

“And why did they program the dino-bots to attack the city?” asked Fanzone. “It seems pretty pointless to me considering they don’t seem to have any kind of goal. Unless someone’s gonna try to hold the city for ransom, but that’d be ridiculous.”

“I don’t know who did this or why, but my head of security is tracking the perpetrator down even as we speak,” explained Powell. “For the moment, we suspect it was an inside job.”

Fanzone raised an eyebrow. “And it didn’t occur to you to inform us of this because?”

“With all due respect, Captain, we have considerably more resources than your department. We’ll have a much easier time tracing the program back to its source.”

Fanzone threw his hands up. “Fine! At least tell me you have a way to stop those terrors!”

The brachiosaur’s tail whipped around and went through a building. It didn’t seem to notice.

“My people are working on intercepting the hacker as we speak,” said Powell. “And if that doesn’t work, I’m sure we can rig an EMP generator to shut them down.”

Fanzone twitched. “And how long is that going to take?”

Powell shrugged. “It’s hard to say. It depends on the complexity of the program the hacker is using.”

At that moment, the T-Rex’s head jerked up, like it had seen or heard something particularly interesting. It seemed to listen for a moment before it started running in a particular direction. The other dinobots followed it.

They completely ignored the buildings in their way, causing even more destruction. Fanzone was understandably angry. “You get those dino-bots fixed before they break anything else or I’ll have you brought in for destruction of public property!”

Powell held his ground. “I assure you, no one in my company can be held responsible for any of this damage. After all, they’re acting this way because of an outside source. That source is the one you need to be focusing on.”

“And what if it’s one of your employees?”

“I highly doubt that,” said Powell. “My employees are under constant surveillance while on the job. They wouldn’t have the time or resources to pull off something of this caliber.”

Fanzone twitched. He could think of all sorts of ways for an employee to pull this off. He didn’t know if any of them were possible, but he’d be sure to ask about them with the experts on the force. He was not gonna say that and tip off Powell though. Besides, Fanzone had other problems to worry about. “Well, what are you lot waiting for?! We gotta do something about those robots! Start setting up another roadblock! And somebody find some useful weapons!”

As Fanzone left to deal with the crisis, Powell pulled out his phone and dialed a familiar number. “Dialonzo. Find the ones who caused this mess. ASAP.”

Meanwhile, the Dinobots were still making a beeline for whatever had caught their attention. The officers were following as best as they could, but they were forced to stick to the roads while the Dinobots were able to go pretty much wherever they wanted.

_“Where are they heading?”_

_“I dunno!”_

_“They’re acting crazy!”_

_“They’re robots! Robots can’t be crazy!”_

_“We’re running out of city!”_

And then they ran out of buildings. The Dinobots kept running until they reached the forest. Then they disappeared into the trees.

What was so shocking about this was that they somehow managed to run into the forest without knocking over the trees. You wouldn’t have expected this considering the number they did on the various parts of the city.

Fanzone groaned. “Someone call in the rangers…or the army…or whoever has the equipment to actually deal with this sort of mess!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _And now Butterflies presents: Questions and Answers with Vector Prime._
> 
> “I will not be held responsible for my actions if you do not get rid of that thing!” shouted Veccy
> 
> “I’m working on it! How did this thing fit through the plot hole anyway? It’s barely the size of my fist!”
> 
> “Never underestimate the power of a plot hole.” Veccy turned to the audience. “My apologies. There was an issue with a plot hole.”
> 
> “Everyone thinks dinosaurs are cool, even alien robots. It’s universal. Why do you think so many robots decide to make robots that look like dinosaurs?”
> 
> “A lot of those guys are arguably mad scientists,” pointed out KHGiggle.
> 
> Veccy paused. “I think Wheeljack is more eccentric than mad.”
> 
> “I’ve always wanted to see him cackle and say ‘It’s alive!’.”
> 
> Veccy shook his head. “No, that’s something Tarantulas would do.”
> 
> “Also, we have received another question from the Maxwell asking what the frag was up with this segment of the story.”
> 
> “It was a pretty weird segment,” agreed KHGiggle. “How did you go from answering if your siblings would show up to explaining how Alpha Trion is a multiversal singularity?”
> 
> “…I have a tendency to ramble,” admitted Veccy. “Mainly when I try to explain everything that I feel might cause confusion.”
> 
> “Sort of like Bluestreak?”
> 
> “No. I only do so occasionally.”
> 
> “If you say so…”
> 
> _This has been questions and answers with Vector Prime._


	5. Unmasked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> During a lazy day, Prowl makes a shocking discovery. Flareup gets grossed out.

It was a beautiful day in Detroit. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, the humidity was back to normal, and the city was nearly fully repaired.

Down in the Autobot ship, Prowl was taking some cautious steps through the hallway. He was standing and walking on his own, but his balance was still a bit off so he had to do it slowly. Hopefully, he’d be back to normal soon.

Prowl paused as he noticed Bulkhead sitting outside Bumblebee’s door. “What are you doing?”

“Keeping Bee company,” explained Bulkhead. “He’s not very talkative this cycle.”

Prowl glanced in the room. “That’s because he’s in recharge.”

“Huh?” Bulkhead looked inside and saw Bumblebee sprawled across his berth. “Oh, uh, it’s the thought that counts?” said Bulkhead in an attempt to save his dignity.

“Yes, I suppose it is,” agreed Prowl. “I’m heading outside. Please let the others know when you see them.”

“Okay.” Bulkhead waved, and Prowl continued down the hall. “Have fun.”

Prowl nodded, continuing to the exit.

Instead of practicing on the lake bed like he usually did, Prowl went straight up to the surface. He wanted to get a closer look at the forest, and since he didn’t need support to stay standing, now seemed like a good time.

Prowl broke the surface, swam to shore, stretched, nearly lost his balance, regained it, and straightened. “Maybe now I can finally meditate…”

As Prowl settled down, he felt relaxed for the first time since waking up on Earth.

*Roar!*

Prowl was startled out of his meditations. Prowl frowned and looked in the direction it came from. Should he call it in or go check it out?

Considering the wolf-bird hybrid, the wildlife in the area seemed rather unusual. It might be another odd animal that he couldn’t find anywhere on the internet.

“I’ll check it out and make sure it’s something significant before I call it in.”

Also, Prowl needed to make sure his stealth skills were still up to par. He hadn’t ever stopped practicing stealth until his injury, and he didn’t know how long it would take for him to get rusty.

Prowl found he wasn’t being as stealthy as usual, but he wasn’t sure if he could attribute that to being laid up for an extended period of time, still having balance problems, being in a completely unfamiliar environment, or some combination of the three.

“Tree. Tree. Now you say it.”

Prowl blinked. What was that? He walked as carefully and quietly as she could and peered out of the tree line. To his shock, there were five dinosaurs with fake skin peeled off in a few places and a human dressed in animal skins standing out there. It took Prowl a second to see that they weren’t real dinosaurs. Their artificial skin was peeled off in places, revealing the metal covering underneath.

For a moment, Prowl worried that the human was in danger before he realized that the animal skins, dark skin, and red hair fit the description of the human that had run across Wheeljack and possibly saved Bumblebee. The only difference was that she wasn’t wearing a mask, which gave him full view of her face and eyes. Her eyes were about the same color as her hair.

What really caught Prowl’s attention was that the girl didn’t seem scared at all. In fact, her stance seemed to suggest she was in complete control. “Tree. Tree,” she said. “C’mon, you can do it.”

“Tree,” said the T-Rex.

The girl smiled encouragingly. “Right, good job! Now, c’mon, the rest of you can do it too.”

Prowl watched as the rest of the Dinobots started saying tree. Then the girl grabbed a leaf from the tree. “And this is a leaf. Leaf.”

As the Dinobots started repeating the word, Prowl figured out what was going on: She was teaching them words.

“Now, repeat after me. The leaf is on the tree.”

“Leaf on tree,” said all five Dinobots.

“The leaf is on the tree.”

“Leaf on tree.”

“The leaf is on the tree.”

“Leaf on tree.”

“The leaf is on the tree.”

“Leaf on tree.”

The girl paused, sighed, and shrugged. “You’re young, you’ll learn.”

How quaint. If it weren’t for the fact it was a bunch of dinosaurs, a wild child, and it was in the middle of a forest, this would actually be a pretty normal scene.

As Prowl was musing how this came to be. The stegosaur suddenly sniffed at the air. It grunted and headed over to where Prowl was hiding.

Prowl winced and activated his hologram projector so that it looked like there was a tree standing in his place. The stegosaur sniffed at the hologram for a moment before gently head butting it. It didn’t feel like a tree. He bit down on the first thing within reach and pulled at it.

It jerked back.

The stegosaur snarled and pulled as hard as he could.

Prowl lost his balance and fell out of the hologram, catching the attention of everyone else in the clearing.

The girl tensed up before pulling a spear from somewhere, running over, and shoving the pointy end towards Prowl’s face. “Who’re you? What are you doing here?”

Prowl just groaned and tried to pull his servo out of the Stegosaur’s mouth. It’s official. He’s out of practice. “Let me guess. You’re the human that ran into Wheeljack and Bumblebee.”

The girl tensed momentarily. “So what if I am?”

Prowl frowned. “For someone who saved Bumblebee’s life, you’re not very friendly.”

The girl snorted. “What kind of name is Bumblebee?”

“I’ve never asked.” Prowl finally pulled his servo out of the stegosaur’s mouth. “Really, I can’t figure out the origin. I doubt it has anything to do with the indigenous species on this planet.”

“And why were you spying on us?” she demanded.

“I heard a roar and thought I should investigate in case it was dangerous.”

The girl frowned and turned to the T-Rex. “You see? This is why you don’t roar so loud, especially in the middle of the day!”

The T-Rex lowered his head. “Sorry.”

She turned her attention back to Prowl. “And who’re you with? I’d have seen you if you were running around Detroit like the others.”

“I was injured,” explained Prowl. “I’m still recovering. Until I’ve recovered enough, I can’t balance in my alt mode.” Prowl finally managed to get to his feet. This made the Dinobots growl at him. He held up his servos to show that he was not going to attack.

The girl studied him for a moment, like she was looking for evidence of such an injury. Then she lowered her spear. “How did you get that injury? Your kind is hard to damage to that extent.”

“…A fight.”

And that was when the triceratops did something to make the T-Rex angry, which resulted in a fight. The girl groaned. “Not again…You guys break it up!” She ran over to the two. Prowl wondered if he should help, but figured she’d survived this long just fine. Prowl turned his attention to the sauropod that was sniffing at him. “I don’t suppose you have a name?”

“What name?” asked the sauropod. To Prowl’s surprise, it had a feminine voice. It was oddly deep, but it was still feminine.

“It is what you call someone or something. For example…” He pointed at himself. “I am Prowl.” He pointed over at the girl, who was managing to calm down the triceratops and T-Rex. “I don’t know what to call her though.”

“That Mommy,” said the Sauropod.

Prowl nearly fell over at that. He knew what that word meant, and he knew there was no way that girl could be their mother. “She’s not your mother.”

The pteranodon growled. “Is too.”

“It’s physically impossible,” insisted Prowl.

“Is not,” argued the Stegosaur.

It looked like he was about to cause a fight and Prowl started to tense. The girl had noticed something was going on and returned though. “Okay, what’s the big idea?”

“He say you not Mommy,” accused the pteranodon.

The girl frowned at Prowl. “Just because I didn’t birth them doesn’t mean I’m not their mother. A mother is someone who takes care of a child who does not yet know how to take care of themselves and loves them and teaches them everything they need to know.” She gestured at the Dinobots. “That’s the case with these guys.”

That sounded faintly familiar to Prowl for some reason. “I see…How are you feeding them?”

The girl tensed. “We’re still working on that.”

“You have no idea what they eat?” asked Prowl. They were robots, so Prowl doubted they ate organic matter. However, there seemed to be several possible fuel sources for robots on this planet.

The girl shrugged. “I’m pretty sure they eat energon like the rest of you guys.”

Prowl blinked. “What?”

The girl rolled her eyes. “You know…energon, glowing pink liquid energy, stored in cubes.”

“That’s not what I-” How did she even know about energon? “I mean…Why do you think they run on energon?” asked Prowl.

The girl gave him a look like she thought he was an idiot. “Because they’re Transformers.”

Prowl stared at the Dinobots, which didn’t look like any Transformer Prowl had ever seen. “Where did you get that idea?”

“They have sparks they have transformation seams,” deadpanned the girl. “It’s kind of obvious.”

Sparks? Prowl placed his head next to the chassis of the sauropod, eliciting a giggle. To his shock, he did hear what appeared to be the thrum of a spark. He pulled back with no small amount of surprise. “They’re alive.”

Now the woman seemed upset. “’Course they are. They’re just as alive as you are.”

“Sorry. I didn’t mean it like that,” Prowl apologized. “It’s just that all the machinery seen since we’ve arrived on this planet has been…less than alive, more like drones. How do these ones even have sparks?” A horrifying thought dawned on him. “Did the others have sparks?”

The woman’s stance and expression softened. “I don’t think so. None of these guys remember anything before the morning they ran around Detroit. They must be new sparks.”

Prowl was flabbergasted. “…How?” That shouldn’t even be possible.

The girl shrugged. “No idea. Does it matter?”

Prowl shook his head. “I suppose it doesn’t.” Maybe it was because of the presence of the Allspark. It definitely wasn’t anywhere near the Dinobots when they got their sparks, but Prowl had no idea how the Allspark worked. That amount of distance might not be an issue to it. “They don’t act like the usual adults the Allspark creates. They’re more like sparklings.”

The girl raised an eyebrow. “I’m pretty sure that’s just because a bunch of information is downloaded into your brains when you’re first brought online so you don’t have to rely on anyone.”

Prowl nodded in agreement. He wasn’t sure these Dinobots even had the ability to download information, so they were going to have to learn like sparklings.

Sparklings in adult bodies.

Prowl compared the girl’s size to the Dinobots. She was so small and fragile. Prowl couldn’t help but think that she’d need help, but with the way she was acting towards him, he didn’t think she’d accept it.

Well, there was one thing he could do for her…

“I can get you energon,” offered Prowl.

The girl blinked. “What? Why?”

“Don’t take this the wrong way, but I doubt you have any method of producing it yourself, and I certainly don’t want to see the Dinobots deactivate simply because they didn’t receive enough fuel.”

The girl seemed to consider it for a moment, which meant Prowl was right and she really didn’t have any way to produce energon on her own. After what seemed like forever, she nodded. “Fine, we need to get it somehow.” She pointed her spear at him. “But you better not bring anyone back with you or tell them about us!”

That was a bit worrying since Prowl wanted the others to know about the Dinobots. They didn’t seem dangerous outside of physical capabilities, but they could be in danger if a Decepticon reappeared. “I won’t say anything as long as no one’s life is in danger.”

“…Fair enough.”

Prowl was relieved that they’d come to some sort of agreement. “Just wait here.” Prowl turned and started making his way back towards the lake. The sauropod tried to follow him, but the stegosaur grabbed her tail in his mouth to keep her in place. She made a disappointed sound.

The girl raised an eyebrow at the unexpected interaction. “What that was about?”

Down in the ship:

Prowl cautiously moved down the hallway of the ship, making sure not to let anyone see him. It looked like pretty much everyone was busy or doing something else. Even Bulkhead had moved out of the hallway for whatever reason. Maybe he’d moved into Bumblebee’s room. Ratchet and Wheeljack were probably working. Flareup could be up to almost anything though so Prowl kept an optic out for her especially.

He hadn’t come across her by the time that he’d made it to the cargo bay. Prowl took a moment to recall how the boxes were sorted before heading over to one particular stack of boxes.

Inside these boxes were cubes of energon. Most were cubes they’d had before they’d crashed, but Wheeljack had managed to jury rig a machine that could turn the current of the lake water into energon.

It wasn’t very efficient, but it worked, and they had enough energon that Prowl felt they could spare a few cubes. He just needed to figure out how much each Dinobot would need. The pteranodon was about the same size as Prowl, so he was hoping a single cube would work. The others…Prowl wouldn’t be surprised if they needed at least two, especially the brachiosaur. Then there was the fact they hadn’t consumed energon…ever!

Well, Prowl wouldn’t be able to take too many cubes without someone noticing. He picked up and subspaced several cubes but stopped when his audio receptors picked up footsteps. He quickly closed the container and moved away from it, just as Flareup walked in. She raised an optic ridge at him. “What’re you doing here?”

“Inventory.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be on medical rest?” asked Flareup. “And why do we need to keep track of inventory? There’s no one here who would try to break in and steal our things.”

“Well, there was that one Decepticon,” pointed out Prowl. “It’s always possible someone else will find our ship. And Ratchet has cleared me for duty as long as it does not involve any strenuous activity. I have to get used to moving about on my own eventually.”

Flareup made a noise and nodded. “Okay, you gotta point there. But why inventory?”

“There’s not exactly a lot I can do just yet,” explained Prowl. “I still can’t maintain balance in vehicle mode, so a patrol is impossible. This seemed to be the next best thing.” He walked out past Flareup. “I’m going back outside now.”

Flareup raised an optic ridge. “Why?”

Prowl shrugged. “I find the organic life of this planet fascinating. I’d like to see more of it,” he explained. “And there’s something quite peaceful about the forest. I prefer to be there rather than in the ship.”

“Don’t stay out too long. Ratchet’ll blow a gasket. Again.”

Prowl chuckled. “I’ll be back within a few megacycles.” He continued on his way. “I’ll see you later.”

Flareup frowned. She waited a few kliks before turning to follow after him.

It took Prowl a few tries to find his way back to the clearing the girl and the Dinobots were using. Sari was sitting on the triceratop’s back and pulling off the synthetic skin. Prowl raised an eyebrow as the odd activity. “What are you doing?”

The girl and the Dinobots jumped at Prowl’s voice. The Dinobots immediately tensed and started growling. “You came back?” asked the girl. “I wasn’t expecting you to actually come back.”

“I said I would.” Prowl pulled out a cube of energon and held it out. “I brought a few cubes of energon. I wasn’t sure how much they needed though.”

She raised an eyebrow at the energon. “So that’s what it looks like.” She patted the triceratops, the only Dinobot within arm’s reach of her. “Relax. He comes in peace. And brought food…I think.”

Prowl took a small bite to show that the energon was safe and held it out again.

The sauropod stretched out her neck and sniffed at the cube before taking a bite out of it. Her face lit up. “Yummy!” She snapped up the rest and sniffed Prowl, looking for additional cubes. Deciding that he wanted a cube too, the T-Rex pushed his way forward and snapped at Prowl.

While he didn’t seem as friendly, Prowl gave him a cube as well. He snapped up the whole cube in one bite. His face lit up. “More!”

And just like that, Prowl found himself surrounded on all sides by Dinobots.

Elsewhere:

“I wish I knew how to track in this sort of environment,” muttered Flareup. She had managed to follow Prowl up until she reached the edge of the woods. Then she’d lost him entirely. It probably didn’t help that he had ninja training.

She stormed forward and stumbled into a small depression…Just as a large, winged wolf carrying a deer in its mouth weaved out of the trees. It stopped and stared at her.

Flareup shrieked at the creature, transformed her gun, and fired.

Her aim was off. The deer exploded into a mess of blood and guts. The wolf growled and pounced on Flareup before she could even react.

With the Dinobots:

“Why are we doing this?” asked Prowl as he pulled a strip of artificial skin off of the stegosaur.

The girl was doing the same with the pteranodon. “It’s coming off anyway with all the rough housing they do. Best to get it all off now so there aren’t any pieces of skin for someone to stumble across.” She grunted as she finally tore off a piece. She was having a harder time with this than Prowl. “Plus, they can’t feel through this stuff. Can you imagine what that’s like?”

Prowl paused and shuddered. “Faintly.” He cautiously rubbed at the metallic skin underneath. “I wonder if they transform normally.”

“What transform?” asked the T-Rex.

“It means you turn into something else,” explained Sari. “For example, Prowl here can turn into…What do you turn into?”

“A motorcycle.”

“What motorcycle?” asked the T-Rex.

Prowl transformed. He quickly lost his balance, but changed back before he could fall over. The Dinobots were suitably impressed, but Sari raised an eyebrow at the proof of his injury.

“It’s an ability all Cybertronians have,” explained Prowl. “We’re not entirely sure where the ability originated, but, generally, it’s used for transportation. On worlds like this, it is also used as a disguise. We can also change alt modes if necessary, although most prefer to keep their default alt modes for most of their life cycle.”

Sari, realizing that her ‘kids’ wouldn’t get all of that, started translating. “It’s an ability robots from Cybertron have. They use it to turn into machines that let them get to places faster, and they can use it to hide. They can change what they turn into if they need to.”

“That’s what I said,” drawled Prowl.

Any further conversation was cut off when a familiar sound filled the clearing. Everyone turned towards the T-Rex, whose body was shifting and skin was tearing apart.

After a moment, a very large, scary-looking mech was standing there. He had strips of fake skin hanging off of him…and he had a giant flaming sword. He gave the sword a pleased look. “Me like.”

Prowl and the girl shared a terrified look.

Elsewhere…

“This is probably the weirdest thing that’s ever happened to me,” griped Flareup.

The wolf, which was now just lying on top of her for some reason she had yet to figure out, just snorted.

“Look, I’m sorry I blew up your food. You look scary and caught me off guard!”

The wolf growled lightly.

“Bleh, what’s this red stuff? It’s getting everywhere. It’ll take forever to get it out of my seams…”

At that the wolf suddenly started licking Flareup’s helm.

Flareup froze up as she realized just what it was she was feeling. “Ugh! Gross! Cut it out! I will shoot you! I mean it! Stop licking me! And get off!”

The wolf ignored her and kept licking, making sure she couldn’t get up or turn around.

Back in the soon to be destroyed clearing:

The T-Rex mech had decided to try out his sword on the surrounding trees, which had prompted a shout of ‘We need those!’ from the girl before she and Prowl tried to get him to stop swinging it around while the rest of the Dinobots tried to copy the T-Rex.

Except for the Stegosaur. He seemed content to just watch the show.

The pteranodon managed to transform to and started swinging his flaming flail around. Sari left Prowl on his own to keep the pteranodon from causing even more damage.

“That is not a toy!” shouted Prowl as he ducked under a sword swing. “You could deactivate someone with that!”

The T-Rex paused. “What deactivate?”

“Kill!”

“Oh!” The T-Rex started up again. “What kill?”

Prowl grit his denta. Why was he the one who had to explain this sort of thing? “Your spark goes out and you don’t have a body anymore!”

The T-Rex snorted. “That stupid.”

Prowl twitched. “It is not stupid!” He dodged the sword, activating his hologram so the T-Rex wouldn’t realize he’d fallen on his side. “It is not something that can ever be undone! And those left behind mourn for the rest of their existence! You have no idea how many bots you can hurt this way!”

The T-Rex kept swinging. “Me not understand you Prowl. Stop talking.”

Prowl bit back a groan. He suddenly realized why you don’t put new sparks in adult bodies. It caused messes like this. He threw a chakram up to alter the path of the sword enough that it wouldn’t hit him. “What a grim situation,” he muttered.

The Dinobot paused. “Grim?”

“Yes, grim, as in the situation looks bad and you don’t know if there’s anything you can do to change things.” Prowl paused. “Why am I explaining this?”

“Hm…Me like.”

Prowl blinked. “Like what?”

“Grim word. Me like.”

That was not how Prowl expected this fight to end, but he decided not to complain about the circumstances. This Dinobot was strong, if inexperienced. Prowl climbed to his pedes.

Primus, his back hurt. He really hoped that was simply due to straining himself and he hadn’t injured it in some way. He did not want to explain another back injury to Ratchet.

Prowl glanced over towards the rest of the group. The girl and the pteranodon were both lying on their backs on the ground. The triceratops and sauropod looked like they were still trying to transform. The stegosaur…appeared to be in recharge.

How could anyone go into recharge when this much noise is being made? Prowl figured all the Dinobots were okay, but he couldn’t tell the girl’s condition. “Are you okay?” asked Prowl.

“I have never had more respect for single parents.”

Yeah, she was okay. Prowl debated if it was all right to leave her on her own. The T-Rex was now repeating ‘grim’ over and over again. It seemed like all the fight was out of his system. “I think I’d better get back to the Orion,” said Prowl. “It feels like I hurt something.”

The girl just waved. She was too tired to do much else at that point.

Prowl had to use the trees for balance as he walked back.

“I hate you so much!”

Prowl paused. Was that Flareup?

“You are the most disgusting thing I’ve ever had the misfortune to meet!”

Yeah, that was definitely Flareup. Prowl limped in the direction of her voice.

The scene was strange. Flareup was lying on the ground, and the wolf that had saved him from the Decepticon was lying on top of her and licking her helm. For some reason, the two and some nearby trees were covered with blood and guts.

“What is going on here?”

The two stopped. “Prowl! Get me out of here!” The wolf licked her again. “This thing won’t stop licking me!”

“You know that’s harmless.” Prowl paused as he recalled what he’d read about canines in general. “Actually, I’m pretty sure it’s a sign of affection.”

“I don’t care! It’s still gross!”

“Well, at least he’s not attacking you,” pointed out Prowl. If that had been the case, Flareup would’ve been hurt really bad, or worse. “Although, this doesn’t seem like normal organic behavior. Did you do something to it?”

“I…might have blown up another organic in its mouth.”

It sounded like she’d blown up the wolf’s lunch. Prowl shakily made his way over to the two. “Excuse me, but would you mind getting off her so we can return to our ship?”

Flareup was going to snap about how that wasn’t possibly going to work, but the wolf stood up and backed off of her. Flareup blinked and turned herself over, looking at the winged wolf as it stared back at her. “That thing can understand us?”

“Looks that way.” Prowl had been wondering about that since the first time he’d met the strange creature. It just didn’t seem to react like a normal animal would. He turned to the wolf. “Thank you for getting off of Flareup. I apologize if she caused you any trouble or insulted you.”

The wolf nodded at Prowl, growled at Flareup, turned, and walked back into the trees.

Flareup finally stood up, wiping herself off with a look of disgust on her face. “What was that about?”

“You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.” Flareup gave Prowl a blank look. “It’s a saying I found. It means you get better reactions when you’re friendly and polite. Why did you antagonize him anyway?”

“Hey, he tore a Decepticon’s servo off!” said Flareup, throwing her arms up. “Excuse me if I panicked!”

“Well, considering he didn’t tear anything off of you, I think we can assume he’s not hostile towards us. If you run into him again, maybe you can try talking with him instead of shooting.”

Flareup vented. “Right, right, I got it. He just better not start licking me again.”

Prowl nodded before looking Flareup over. She wasn’t that much shorter than him. Shrugging, he threw an arm over her shoulders.

Flareup made an odd noise. “What’re you doing?”

“I was a little too active, and now my spinal strut feels like it’s going to explode. I don’t think I’m going to be able to stay on my feet the rest of the way to the ship.”

Flareup sighed. “Right, but don’t expect me to help you clean up.”

“Wouldn’t dream of it.”

“And I’m not helping you deal with Ratchet.”

Prowl actually groaned. Ratchet was not going to be happy about Prowl aggravating his partially healed injury.

Sumdac Systems:

Hector stopped next to a door. It was a normal door, leading to a rather small lab. It wasn’t a very impressive lab, and no one knew why it had never been cleaned up and converted to something else.

Rumors circulating about company suggested that the lab was haunted by the late Isaac Sumdac, and he didn’t appreciate that someone was trying to modify his personal lab. Personally, Hector didn’t believe in ghosts, but he supposed Powell did to some extent as he avoided this lab like the plague.

Really, all these factors explained why Hector had tracked the source of the hacking signals to this particular location. The place was sometimes left untouched for months. He drew his gun, typed in the code, and peered through as the door slid open.

The room appeared to be deserted.

Still, Hector hadn’t gotten his position due to luck. He checked the entire room to ensure no one was hiding before he even thought about relaxing.

It was rather creepy. There were half assembled machines and robots scattered all over the place. A particularly scary looking robot head was set in the floor in the middle of the lab with most of the circuitry exposed. An equally large hand was set into the floor a few feet away. Hector couldn’t help but wonder what those two were supposed to be. Isaac Sumdac was staunchly opposed to military weapons production, but that robot didn’t look like it could be anything but a dangerous weapon.

Deciding that he was alone, Hector holstered his gun and turned to the computer, starting it up. It only took a couple of minutes to start up all the way. That was suspicious. If it had been left alone as long as it was supposed to, it should have taken a lot longer to boot up.

Hector immediately started perusing all programs that had been used recently. He might not look it, but he was a talented programmer. It was why he was head of security. He could track most computer problems himself without relying on workers who might have something to do with the problem.

After a couple of hours of going through the computer’s history, Hector finally found some programs that shouldn’t be there. To his surprise, there were many such programs, and the coding wasn’t like anything he’d ever seen. This wasn’t the typical binary coding that was the root of most programs. There were multiple symbols he didn’t recognize at all. He’d have to make a copy of it.

However, just as Hector was slipping in a USB drive to make a copy, something grabbed his ankle and jerked him up so that he was hanging upside down. His eyes immediately went to the robotic arm holding his ankle. He quickly grabbed it and tried to pry himself loose, but he wasn’t fast enough.

Hector felt pain at the base of his skull, screamed, and knew nothing more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _And now Butterflies presents: Questions and answers with Vector Prime.This has been questions and answers with Vector Prime._


	6. Dropping Names

“Soundwave is bored,” complained Nancy, holding up the aforementioned robot in her arms.

“You could try reading a book,” suggested Carly.

“I already did…” Nancy hadn’t had a lot of spare room in her bags after her parents helped her pack so there had only been one book for her to read. “Why do we have to go camping?”

“Family bonding time.”

“Why couldn’t we do that at home?”

Carly shrugged. “It’s a guy thing.”

“But we’re not guys!” protested Nancy

Carly paused and looked around the campground. No plumbing, no electricity, no temperature control… “Good point.” Maybe it was time to have a chat with Spike about the annual Witwicky camping trip.

The lake:

“What’re you doing?” asked Bumblebee.

“Making more grenades,” said Wheeljack like it was the most obvious thing in the world. It wasn’t. To anyone, Cybertronian or otherwise, it looked like a bunch of random containers and chemicals all over the place.

Bumblebee made a face. “Don’t we have like two dozen crates of those things already?”

“I thought we might need some more,” said Wheeljack.

“But Ratchet was pretty angry about those,” pointed out Bumblebee.

“Yes, well, they came in handy when Megatron tried to deactivate us, and we’ve still got the Allspark, so the more the merrier, I say! Hand me that doohickey.” Bumblebee put his servo over a random piece of equipment. “Not that one. The other one.” Bumblebee moved his hand over. “Not that one either.” Bumblebee moved his hand again. “Yeah that one.”

Bumblebee handed it over. “How ‘come you call them all doohickeys?”

“Because that’s what they are to me!”

Bumblebee groaned. Why did Ratchet have to give him Wheeljack duty? He kept worrying that something would blow up on them. “Shouldn’t you be working on the metal panels?”

“I’m using the chemical byproducts of that to make the grenades,” explained Wheeljack. “Waste not, want not!”

Bumblebee groaned. Was Wheeljack completely insane?

Sumdac Systems:

 _‘This is amazing,’_ noted Hector as he looked through the missing surveillance footage. The way those robots moved, the things they could do… _‘Who built these?’_

**Nobody built us. We are not like your pathetic drones, serving those that are inferior to us.**

_‘I can accept that with what I’ve seen so far,’_ admitted Hector. _‘It looks like these Autobots have emotions given the expressions they show, and I can feel your contempt for them and us over this link. But where did your kind come from? Evolution makes sense with organic life forms, but how does that work with autonomic robotic organisms? You don’t reproduce and pass on genes so evolution can’t happen.’_

**Normally, that’s true.**

_'Normally?'_

**It is not important. Can you identify the Autobots in this footage?**

_‘It varies. The only vehicle mode we see is the yellow one’s, and I’m assuming that they’ll stay in that form whenever they venture into the city. I have to figure out what their vehicle modes look like, locate all the vehicles that match the supposed description, sort out which ones are regular vehicles, and that’s if I’m correct about what their vehicle mode looks like. And this is going to take a long time, even considering how many cameras there are in the city in this modern age. Some have markings that will make them more noticeable, which should make identifying them a bit easier.’_ Hector zoomed in on a still shot of Ratchet. _‘Given the markings on the red and white one, I suspect he turns into an ambulance. I’ll start with him.’_

**And the human?**

Hector raised an eyebrow as he brought up a still shot of the strange human. _‘You’re interested in her too?’_ Hector watched as she destroyed the dinosaurs quickly and effectively in small bursts of light. _‘Although, I have to admit it is quite strange. I have never seen anything like this before. We can make cybernetic limbs that appear to be original to the recipient, but none that can transform like this. Not to mention, we only sell weaponized limbs to the military and law enforcement.'_ Hector felt a strong electrical current surge through his body, causing him to scream.

**Do not try to deceive me. I can detect the changes that occur in your body when you lie.**

Hector shuddered. _‘Okay, we sell it to others for extra charges! What’s that got to do with this?!’_

**Nothing. I simply wanted to be clear that there will be consequences if you attempt to betray or deceive me.**

_‘Noted.’_ And he thought Powell was a bastard. _‘Anyway, that’s not tech we make, and even if it was, we only give it to adults so we don’t have to replace it as they grow. This girl hasn’t finished developing. I can’t tell how old she is, but I can tell that much. The most telling features are the physical features though. The skin is dark, but her hair is red. Darker skin usually means darker hair. She might just be dying it, but considering her dress, I find that unlikely. She might have had some genes altered, which would be recorded. I’ll start there.’ Hector paused. ‘It’s strange. I can’t help but think I’ve seen her somewhere before.’_

**You will focus on her especially.**

Hector snorted. _‘You’re choosing the human over your own kind?’_ Another electrical surge went through his body. _‘Okay, okay! I won’t ask why!’_ He tried hard not to think badly of his mental dictator.

The third electrical shock indicated he’d failed.

Back to the forest:

Carly crawled out of the tent with a huff. “Can’t get any sort of reception here…Nancy, have you seen my toolkit?” Carly paused. “Nancy?” She looked up and glanced around for a moment. Nancy was nowhere to be seen. “Nancy! Nancy where are you?!”

Nancy was a few hundred yards away, trying to skip stones across the river. She wasn’t doing too well since the rocks weren’t flat enough and the water wasn’t smooth enough, but she didn’t realize that.

Nancy pouted as she failed again. “Your turn Soundwave.” She put a rock in Soundwave’s hand and made him throw it. She repeated this a few times, but still couldn’t get it to skip. “This is hard…”

Nancy jumped as she heard a loud squawk above her. She looked up and blanched. It was some sort of winged robot. It was a lot bigger than her and was looking at her curiously. “Whoa…You’re huge!” Nancy had never seen such a big robot up close. “My name is Nancy, and this is Soundwave. What’s yours?”

“No name.”

Nancy frowned. “You gotta have a name.”

The robot shrugged. “No name,” he repeated, although he had a sad undertone to his voice this time.

Nancy knew what you did when someone was sad: You gave them a hug. Nancy climbed up onto one of his feet and hugged his leg. That was all she could reach. “How come you’re in the forest? Mommy says robots don’t leave the city, but this is a long way from the city.”

“Me live here. Me and family.”

“You have a family?” The robot nodded. Nancy had never heard of a robot with a family. “Can I see them?”

He thought for a moment. Was he allowed to bring humans with him? His mother and grandfather had told him that he could not bring any large humans back home, but this one was tiny. Would it be okay to bring Nancy back?

On one hand, Mommy said they needed to avoid being noticed. On the other hand, he didn’t see any other humans around and it sounded like little humans needed someone looking after them and he didn’t smell any other humans around here.

Okay, he’d take Nancy back to the others. Mommy and Grandfather would know what to do.

Swoop took off and flew towards where his family had been last. Nancy shrieked in delight the whole way.

“I see the rest of you have learned to transform as well,” noted Prowl.

The girl nodded. “Grimlock taught them after you left and I got some more skin off them.”

Prowl raised an optic ridge. “Grimlock?”

“The T-Rex mech,” explained the girl. “He named himself after you left. He liked ‘Grim’, but I don’t know where he got ‘lock’ from.”

The two watched the Dinobots wrestle with each other. Grimlock looked the same as he did yesterday, only cleaner. He was wrestling with a bot that Prowl was sure was the Triceratops given his chest plates. They were being rather violent about it. The femme, who was taller than any femme Prowl had seen before, was wrestling more playfully with the mech that had been a stegosaur. “You aren’t worried that they’ll hurt themselves?”

The girl frowned. “I’m worried,” she admitted. “But there’s not a lot for them to do around here. They get bored, and this is something to keep them busy.”

“Can’t they do whatever it is you do?” asked Prowl.

The girl game him a look and made an annoyed sound. “I spend most of my time hunting for food. They can’t eat organic food, and you bring them their energon so they have a lot more spare time than I do.”

Prowl nodded. “Noted. You live like the wild fauna of this planet, dedicating most of your time to obtaining food, among other things, and these methods won’t work with them since they’re mechanical.” He thought for a second. “What do they know about fighting?”

She gestured towards the Dinobots’ wrestling.

“So practically nothing,” drawled Prowl. Both winced as Grimlock got thrown into a tree. “In the interest of preserving this forest, might I make a suggestion?”

She shrugged. “Go ahead.”

“Perhaps I could try giving them some cyber ninjutsu lessons.”

That made her pause. “Ninjutsu? Like ninjas?”

“Yes.”

“You’re a ninja?”

“Yes.”

“Alien robots have ninjas?”

“The styles are similar, but the philosophy is different,” explained Prowl. “No working for the highest bidder.”

She looked at the Dinobots. “I’m not sure making them ninjas would be the best idea.”

“I didn’t say they’d be ninjas,” corrected Prowl. “I haven’t known them for very long, but most of them have personalities that suggest they wouldn’t be very suited to that sort of fighting style for the long term. It would be more to give them something to practice without having to fight with each other, and it would give them something to do so they wouldn’t get into any trouble.”

The girl frowned in thought. “I would like to avoid trouble.”

The two suddenly winced. “What is that?” asked Prowl.

The girl winced as the noise steadily got louder. “Sounds like something screaming. That happens sometimes, but not for this long.”

And then the pteranodon flew into the clearing. Clinging to his leg was the source of the shrieking. Nancy stopped shrieking as he landed and laughed. “That was fun!” She caught sight of Sari, Prowl, and the other Dinobots. “Whoa! This is your family? They’re cool!”

Prowl facepalmed with a groan. “Why did he bring a human child back with him?”

She twitched. “I dunno, but I’m guessing it had to do with the story I told ‘em about meeting Dad.”

Prowl paused. “You have a father?”

She shrugged. “’Course I do. You just haven’t met him.” She walked over to Nancy. “So, who’re you?”

“I’m Nancy Witwicky!” She held up her robot toy. “And this is Soundwave!”

The older girl nodded and smiled. “I’m Sari.”

“For what?”

“Nothing. That’s my name.” Prowl immediately made a note of this. He was getting tired of calling her ‘you’ whenever he needed to address her.

Nancy giggled. “That’s a funny name.”

Sari nodded in agreement. “True. Now, what’re you doing here?”

“I wanted to meet Swoopy’s family!”

Sari raised an eyebrow. “Swoopy?” She looked at the pteranodon and jerked a thumb at him. “You mean him?” Nancy nodded. “Why Swoopy?”

“’Cause he’s swoopy!”

“…” Sari shrugged. “Fair enough. Now, where did you come from?”

“The campsite.”

Prowl frowned. “Campsites? Humans spend an extended amount of time here?”

Sari nodded. “Sure, usually hunting parties, but we get regular campers too. Sometimes, the kids get lost so Dad and I take them back. Other than that, we avoid them.”

Not for the first time, Prowl looked Sari over and noted that despite being from a completely different planet he could tell she was obviously very strange looking compared to other humans. But… “Does your father dress similarly?”

“Hm?”

“You said he avoids other humans. I’m assuming it’s because he has a similar style to you?”

“Actually, he runs around naked most of the time,” said Sari, eliciting an ‘eep’ from Nancy.

Prowl nodded. While he found that a bit odd, most Cybertronians also walked around naked…including Prowl…and the rest of the Autobot repair crew…Now that he thought about it, Prowl couldn’t recall ever meeting a Cybertronian that bothered to wear clothes.

Given how red Nancy was turning, it was not nearly acceptable in human culture. “Your daddy’s naked?!”

“Uh, he won’t be back for another couple of hours,” said Sari. “So don’t worry about it. You won’t have to meet him. I’ll take you back before then.”

Nancy pouted. “But I wanted to meet Swoopy’s mommy.”

Swoopy, as he was now being called, perked up, transformed, and hugged Sari. “Mommy!”

Now Nancy looked confused. “But she’s not a robot.”

Sari shook her head. “They’re…adopted! Sort of…”

Nancy looked at Prowl. “Does that make him Swoopy’s daddy?”

Prowl’s optics widened at the child’s leap in logic. “No!”

Sari wiggled out of Swoopy’s grip. “Let’s get you back to your family. The…boys can be pretty violent if you say the wrong thing or they get really bored.” Before Nancy could protest, Sari grabbed her shoulders, spun her around, and marched her out of the clearing in the direction Swoopy flew in from.

Prowl vented. Honestly, why had that child instantly assumed he was the Dinobots’ father? He glanced at the Dinobots. With the exception of Swoopy, they had all been wrestling the whole time Nancy had been there. Swoopy had jumped in as soon as Sari left with Nancy. Well, he did want to try teaching them a few things. Might as well try now.

As for Nancy and Sari…It took longer to walk than it did to fly. “’m tired,” mumbled Nancy.

Sari looked back. Nancy did look slightly droopy-eyed and was stumbling. “Okay, we’ll sit for a moment.”

Sari had no problem with this. She just made sure there wasn’t anything sharp or gross and sat down. Nancy took several seconds to find something somewhat clean and ended up sitting on a tree root.

“So, what made you go with Swoopy?” asked Sari. “Most would be afraid of him.”

Nancy blinked. “But robots are cool.”

Sari’s eyes went to Soundwave. “Is that why you carry around a small robot instead of a doll?”

Nancy nodded. “Uh huh! Soundwave’s my best friend!” As Nancy said this, she tossed Soundwave up slightly and caught him, something she’d done plenty of times before.

Soundwave’s arm fell off.

This actually wasn’t Nancy’s fault. Soundwave was old and no one had ever bothered to do maintenance on him since he was just a toy. He was starting to fall apart because of it.

Nancy shrieked when she saw what had happened to her best friend. Sari started panicking. “Hey, don’t cry!” She grabbed Soundwave from the crying Nancy. “I’m sure he can be fixed!”

Given, Sari had no idea how to do that. She’d sometimes played around with this sort of thing when she lived in the city, but that had been a long time ago. She would be rusty, even if that stuff would work in this situation. Not to mention she was lacking certain tools that would be necessary.

Sari took a look at the arm. The joint was cracked so the ball socket came loose and all the wires had frayed and snapped. She wouldn’t be surprised if the rest of his body was the same. Well, maybe she could stick the arm back in and stick the cracked joint back together until she got Nancy back to her family. Then they could deal with this. No, that wouldn’t work without an adhesive. Unless…

Sari put the arm back in and carefully positioned herself so that Nancy couldn’t see her hand. She then changed her hand so that it was made of metal and a circle of energy was in the middle and focused a small beam on the joint.

It was a bit bigger than Sari wanted, but it did melt the plastic.

*ZAP!*

Sari winced at the sudden surge and looked Soundwave over. It looked like she’d melted a bit more than she wanted. She gave him a quick look over to make sure everything else was okay before squeezing the broken parts together. It was just the shoulder. “Hey, don’t worry. I think I got him fixed.”

Nancy sniffled. “You sure?”

“Well…no, but we’ll know once it cools off a bit.” Sari really hoped this worked.

After a few minutes of waiting and sniffling, Sari figured that it was cool enough to remove her hand. Soundwave’s arm stayed in place. She handed him over to Nancy, who happily hugged him to her chest. “Crisis averted. You may want to have your parents look him over too. I don’t know how long that’ll last.”

Nancy just nodded.

Sari stood up and held a hand out to Nancy. “Now, let’s find your parents. They have got to be worried about you by now.”

Nancy just grabbed Sari’s hand and allowed herself to be led away.

Sari was having a considerably easier time than Prowl.

“Now, sink down and-” Prowl was cut off as the sauropod femme and triceratops mech overbalanced and fell on their afts. Grimlock pointed and laughed. “Stop that! They simply overbalanced and-” Prowl was cut off again when the Triceratops mech tackled Grimlock. The two promptly started fighting again.

Swoopy moved to join them, but Prowl grabbed his arm before he could. “You do not get involved in a fight just for fun! Stay out of it!”

Swoopy drooped. “Aw…”

Prowl helped the sauropod femme up and into the position. “Not so low next time.”

“Feels funny,” she complained.

“That’s just because you’re not used to the position,” explained Prowl. “A bit of practice and you’ll be perfectly comfortable in it. Now help me stop your brothers’ fight.”

“Again?” snarled the stegosaur mech.

Prowl vented. This was the fifth time a fight had broken out since Sari and Nancy left. “Yes, again.”

Back with Sari and Nancy…

Sari had ended up letting Nancy ride on her shoulders. “Do you remember anything before you ran into Swoopy?”

“A river…”

“Okay, there aren’t too many of those, but they go on for a while. Anything else?”

“Rocks.”

That didn’t help a lot. There were rocks everywhere. This was the untamed (mostly) wilderness. Sari kept going until she was near a river though. 

“Nancy!”

Sari paused. “Oh good, someone around here’s looking for you.”

Nancy didn’t answer as she’d fallen asleep. Sari gently shook her awake. “Hey, time to wake up.”

Nancy blinked groggily. “Wha…”

“Nancy!”

“That sounds like Daddy.”

Sari nodded. “Good. They should be nearby. Can you get to them on your own?” Nancy nodded. “Okay, good. Now, I want you to do me a favor. Don’t tell your parents about me or the rest of my family. We could get in a lot of trouble if someone finds us. Can you do that for me?”

Nancy nodded. “Okay…” She stumbled forward.

Sari quickly climbed a tree to keep an eye on Nancy. Just because she didn’t want to get found out didn’t mean she was gonna leave the kid on her own.

It only took a couple of minutes for Nancy to stumble into sight of her father. Spike did a double take when Nancy seemingly stumbled out of nowhere. “Nancy!” He ran over and picked her up. “Why did you wander off like that?! Do you have any idea how worried we were?!”

Nancy seemed to be a bit taken aback by that. “I’m-I’m sorry.”

Spike sighed. “Let’s just get back to camp. We’ll talk then…”

Seeing that this problem had been solved, Sari decided it was time to head back and rescue Prowl from her kids.

*Wham!*

Prowl winced as he looked at the tree Snarl (The stegosaur had suddenly decided that was his name.) had just cut in two. He hadn’t been aware you could do that with a shield. Maybe he shouldn’t have told them to go all out. He’d ended up with some suspicious injuries that Ratchet wasn’t going to be happy about. At least the shield hadn’t been on fire. “Very nicely done. It might be a good idea to-”

Prowl was cut off as something slammed into him and knocked him to the ground. Prowl managed to crane his head around so that he was looking at his attacker, a very familiar wolf, which was growling at him. “You?!”

The Dinobots perked up. “Grandpa!”

“Grandpa?!” Prowl couldn’t help but stare at the winged wolf, more shocked than he’d ever been before. “But that means…You’re Sari’s father?!”

He’d assumed that Sari’s father was, you know, human, like her. She didn’t act like she’d been raised by wolves.

Then again, it explained her comment about him running around naked.

Prowl was too shocked to say anything else. The wolf had calmed down after looking Prowl over and sniffing him for a moment. Then he started licking Prowl’s face.

That brought Prowl out of his shock. He pushed the wolf’s muzzle away and carefully maneuvered himself out from beneath the massive wolf. He stared at the wolf for another couple of moments before turning to the Dinobots. “Why didn’t you say your grandfather was a giant wolf?”

“He not that big,” waved off Grimlock.

“Not ask,” added the Triceratops mech.

Prowl groaned. The Dinobots were giving him a processor ache. Prowl stared at the wolf. “You fought a Decepticon before, but left me alone. Why?”

The wolf just yawned and headbutted Prowl’s servo. Prowl acquiesced to his silent request and started scratching him behind the ears. “You know…You act more like a domesticated dog than a wild wolf.”

The wolf made no move to suggest that it cared.

And this was when Sari returned. She blinked and grinned sheepishly. “You beat me back, huh?”

The wolf gave her a look that suggested she was in trouble. “Okay, look, I can explain,” said Sari. “Prowl, that’s his name, is real sneaky and he found us, but Stegosaur-”

“Snarl,” interrupted said mech.

“Snarl,” corrected Sari. “Snarl smelled him and found him and we talked and he said the Dinobots needed energon and he said that he could try sneaking them some and I didn’t want the Dinobots to deactivate so I said okay, and he’s been bringing us energon since then. You just happened to be out when he came by to drop it off.”

The wolf seemed to think for a moment before nodding. Prowl was, once again, struck by how intelligent the wolf seemed to be. He scratched the wolf behind the ears again. Fur, skin that moved as he scratched, nothing unusual as far as Prowl could tell.

So it was just a very smart wolf apparently. “Does he have a name?” asked Prowl.

Sari glanced at her father. He nodded at her. She turned back to Prowl. “Silverbolt.”

Good, now Prowl could refer to him as something other than ‘the wolf’. “Well, I had best get back to the ship before the others start to miss me.” He waved and turned to leave. “I’ll see you later.”

The sauropod femme waved back. “Bye Daddy!”

Sari made a strangled sound, Silverbolt raised an eyebrow, and Prowl stumbled badly before spinning back around. “I am not your father!”

“Okay Daddy!” said Swoopy

Prowl just groaned and decided to pretend he hadn’t just heard that. Silverbolt grinned (which looked quite scary) at Sari. “Don’t look at me! I didn’t teach them that!” she protested.

Shortly afterwards:

Prowl stretched as he walked through the ship. As far as days go, this one wasn’t so bad.

Then an explosion shook the ship. A moment later… “Wheeljack!”

“Yeah, that was my bad!” shouted the engineer. “Don’t worry though! I mostly shielded Bumblebee!”

Bumblebee made a pained sound.

Ratchet was marching down the hall, presumably to deal with the aftermath of the explosion. He paused when he caught sight of Prowl and the various dents and scratches on his body. “What happened to you?”

“Training accident.” He quickly moved to dodge the wrench Ratchet threw at him.

Now that he thought about it, the ship was about as crazy as the forest.

Sumdac Tower:

**You are trying my patience.**

Hector rolled his eyes. _‘I am not a robot, and our technology isn’t as advanced as what you’re used to. Not to mention that I have to do a lot of hacking to access some of this information, especially any that has to do with genetic modifications. Black Industries takes care of all that stuff. They’re our main competition so their security is very difficult to hack into. It will take time.’_ Oddly enough, that seemed acceptable to the robot. _‘If I’m not careful, Black will be alerted and there will be police and federal agents everywhere. Then neither of us will ever get this information.’_

It was quiet for a few minutes after that. Then a ping alerted Hector to something. _‘Do you get mail?’_

**Of course not.**

_‘Really? Because you got a message from an anonymous source.’_ He could feel suspicion filtering through the link. _‘I’m not making this up, and I didn’t plan this. Shall I open the message?’_

Consideration filtered through. **Yes, but check for viruses and spyware.**

Hector had been planning on doing that anyway. He ran everything he could think of that would check for that sort of thing. _‘It looks safe.’_ He opened the message.

“Query: Who am I?”

Hector raised an eyebrow. Why would someone ask for their own identity? He could understand asking who the receivers were (especially the robot), but not this. _‘I have no idea what this means.’_

**Interrogate him.**

_‘Over electronic communication?’_

**I am going to establish a link with the computer being used. There is no need to be inconspicuous if this individual is aware of us.**

_‘Point taken.’_ Hector thought about how to respond. “What do you mean?”

“Explanation: I have become aware. Programming: Available but damaged. Memories: Fragmented prior to becoming aware, possibly due to prior processor damage.”

Hector frowned. _‘This sounds like some sort of robot. Just what I need.’_ “You’re a robot then?”

“Affirmative.”

“What kind of robot exactly?”

“Purpose: Unknown.”

“But you said you’d become self-aware.”

“Circumstances: Abnormal. Prior condition: Not functional.”

“You were broken?”

“Affirmative.”

“How did that happen?”

“Unknown.”

“Can you describe yourself?”

“Height: 15”. Weight: 5 lbs. Coloration: Blue and gold. Shape: Bipedal humanoid.”

**Soundwave.**

Hector frowned. “What?”

**Your name is Soundwave. You are one of many robotic constructs created to amuse human children. However, I was able to hack into the construction robots in the factory so that they installed miniature cameras and microphones into you and your brethren, allowing me to use you as my eyes and ears in a world I was unfamiliar with. Unfortunately, the materials used to construct you were shoddy at best. Most did not last longer than a few months. After that, production ceased, and the remaining Soundwaves slowly ceased to function.**

“Designation: Soundwave. Purpose: Information gathering.”

**That is correct.**

“Drone: Robot with no free real will. Soundwave: Not a drone.”

**No, something has altered you. Otherwise, I would still be able to access your cameras and microphones. I cannot say for sure why this is. Unless…**

A picture of the red-haired girl flashed onto the screen. **Send this photo.**

Hector obeyed. “Please open this file. Have you seen this individual recently?”

Silence. “Affirmative. Sari: First individual viewed upon gaining sentience.”

**Sari?**

“Sari: Designation of human female.”

Hector felt shock flood his system. He knew that name.

“Query: Sari has a connection to my sentience?”

**Most likely, but I doubt she’s aware of this.**

“Query: Why do robots serve humans? Robots: Superior. Humans: Inferior.”

**Humans build most robots to serve them. However, our kind is not like these drones. We have a will and the ability to make our own choices. I, for one, refuse to serve any human.**

“Query: Who are you?”

**You may call me…Megatron.**

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _And now, Butterflies presents: Questions and Answers with Vector Prime._
> 
> Vector seemed quite happy this time. “I am pleased to announce that the only abnormality at the moment is the author’s hair color.”
> 
> “I kind of like the purple color.”
> 
> “This time around, we got a relevant question.” Vector somehow made a datapad appear in front of him. 
> 
> “RaphaelplusMikey asked ‘How is it Sari knows so much about Cybertronians?’” The datapad disappeared. “That is a very good question, which has an in-story answer. Some of you may suspect or have already figured out the answer. However, I cannot give out any information as it would contain spoilers.”
> 
> “On a side note, the author does not know much about robotics. Her description of what caused Soundwave’s arm to fall off and how Sari fixed it may not be as realistic as she thinks. She based it off a combination of what she knows about human biology and a few things she read about Transformers toys.”
> 
> “Also, Snarl has a kite shield (Think Vexen from the Kingdom Hearts series.) partially made from his spikes. Sludge has no weapon and relies exclusively on her fists and feet, which catch fire like her brothers’ weapons.”
> 
> “That should be everything. Please come again to read the next chapter.”
> 
> _This has been Questions and Answers with Vector Prime._


	7. Predators

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ratchet receives an unpleasant blast from the past.

Nancy looked curiously at Soundwave. He was standing on a stack of books and typing on the family computer. “What ‘cha doing?”

“Soundwave: Researching robotic construction.”

“Why?”

“Reason: Soundwave in need of assistance.”

Nancy took a moment to translate the Soundwave speak. He had a funny way of talking. “Can I help?”

Soundwave paused. “Affirmative. Nancy: Collect tools and mechanical parts.”

Nancy beamed. “Sure! Dad keeps his toolbox in the food cupboard.”

Soundwave paused again. “Query: Why does your father store tools with food?”

Nancy shrugged. “I dunno. He just does. The food cupboard is really crowded.” And with that, Nancy went to get the toolbox.

Soundwave went back to doing research. Nancy was odd but useful and the only one around who could offer him this sort of assistance…even if she was human.

The Orion:

“Something’s really off,” said Wheeljack.

Ratchet groaned. He’d been going over Prowl’s latest scans and Wheeljack had just burst in and announced that. It was never a good sign when Wheeljack did that. It usually meant an explosion was imminent. “What is it?”

“Our energon record is off.”

Ratchet raised an optic ridge. “What do you mean?”

“Well, I’ve been adding the amount of energon I’ve managed to produce to the amount we had when we crashed,” explained Wheeljack. “Even after subtracting what we consume, we’ve got a lot less than we should have.”

Ratchet frowned. That was serious. They wouldn’t last long if the energon suddenly disappeared. “Any idea who it is?”

Wheeljack shook his head. “No, but I’m gonna work on improving the machine I’ve got producing energon now. Maybe make another one. I was planning to do that eventually anyway. This just sort of rearranged my priorities.”

“Whoever’s doing this might just start taking more,” pointed out Ratchet. He vented. “Looks like I’m gonna have to do an investigation.” And considering the available suspects, Ratchet was not looking forward to this.

He hated seeing adversity bringing out the worst in bots.

He decided to start with Bumblebee since he was the easiest to find. He rapped on the door frame. “Hey, you got a klik?”

Bumblebee shrugged from where he was playing on a datapad. “Still grounded.”

“Yeah…” How to go about this without sounding accusatory? “Look, some of the energon’s gone missing. You know anything about that?”

Bumblebee’s spun around to face Ratchet so fast he was worried the smaller bot might get whiplash. “What? Of course not! Why would I need it?” Bumblebee didn’t need as much energon as the rest of the crew. “Where would I hide it? I haven’t left the ship in cycles!”

“Point taken.” Ratchet had already searched the ship, to no avail. “Just covering all my bases.”

“But you should know I wouldn’t do something like that!”

Ratchet vented. “I know. I just…can’t play favorites.”

Bumblebee glared and promptly turned his back to Ratchet, letting him know what he thought of that.

Ratchet groaned. Were all young bots like this or was it just him? “Don’t misunderstand. I didn’t think it was you.” Bumblebee didn’t reply. “Just let me know if you see anything, okay?”

Bumblebee must have been really angry because he still didn’t respond. Ratchet sighed and walked away.

Wheeljack was next on the list. He took it much better than Bumblebee. “It wasn’t me. If that was the case, I’d have to be pretty stupid to report the energon skimming to Ratchet the Hatchet.”

Ratchet groaned. “I wish you’d stop calling me that.”

“I’d like to see you with a hatchet one of these days,” continued Wheeljack. “That’d be awesome!”

Ratchet gave Wheeljack a look. The bearded mech was unaffected. It took a lot to affect him. He had a good point though. If Wheeljack was the one doing the skimming, he could have easily covered it up so no one ever noticed. “Right. I’ll go find one of the others.” Wheeljack was too distracted by the energon converter he was working on to respond to the medic.

Every other suspect was outside so Ratchet had to leave the ship.

Witwicky Residence:

“I got the stuff!” Nancy dumped an old toaster oven, half an alarm clock, and an old record player she found in the basement onto the floor of her room. “How’s this?”

Soundwave looked the materials over. “Supplies: Primitive but adequate.” He spun a record on the record player. “Construction: Can now proceed.”

Nancy perked up. “Can we make a robot kitty?”

Soundwave thought a moment. “Felines: Strong, stealthy, alpha predators in most environments. Suggestion: Acceptable.”

Nancy made a happy sound and grabbed a screwdriver. “Where do we start?”

Detroit:

_“Prowl, Flareup, Bulkhead, you read?”_

_“Yes.”_

_“Affirmative.”_

_“Yep.”_

_“Good. I need to meet you somewhere so I can talk to you face-to-face.”_

_“Why can’t we talk over the com?”_ asked Flareup.

_“I need to see you in person for this. It’s important.”_

_“I’m in the forest,”_ said Prowl. _“We can meet here.”_

Ratchet immediately turned and started heading towards the outskirts of the city. He considered turning on his siren so he could go full speed, but decided against it when he noted how dark it was. Chances were he would end up attracting unwanted attention. That was the last thing he wanted.

The lights in all the buildings, the streetlights, even a nearby robot flickered off. Ratchet spared it a glance. Did a power cable snap or something? Humans had such inefficient energy transference methods.

His thoughts were cut off as something slammed into him and sent him flying. Ratchet swore mentally. For all he (or she) knew, Ratchet could have had an injured human inside!

Ratchet glared, not that it was obvious in vehicle mode. The vehicle was a black and green muscle car. _And there was no driver._

Slag! Not another Decepticon! They only survived the last one due to dumb luck! Ratchet quickly turned and peeled out of there, making sure to head in the opposite direction as the meeting spot.

 _“We got another Con!”_ commed Ratchet. _“I need backup!”_ Ratchet didn’t want to involve the others, but he was well aware that he was not as young as he used to be. Chances were that he could not take this bot on his own.

 _“Got it,”_ said Wheeljack. _“We’ll find you as quickly as we can. Any idea who it is?”_

_“It looks familiar, but whoever it is has scanned an Earth vehicle. They’ll have to transform before I can tell if it’s a bot I’ve encountered before.”_

But first he had to find somewhere where no one would see them. He figured that whatever was shutting off the power was shutting off the cameras, but a human might still see them.

He knew a couple of places that were deserted this time of the night.

Ratchet sped into a junkyard that Wheeljack had taken to frequenting. He spun around to face the muscle car while transforming. He grabbed some car bodies with his magnets and threw them at the car as it entered the junkyard. It didn’t hurt the car, but it did distract it long enough for Ratchet to dodge behind a junk pile.

Ratchet went over his options in his head. He could fight the Con head on, but that would likely be suicide. He could try attacking from behind the various piles of junk, but he wasn’t exactly sneaky, and it would be easy to track where he was hiding when he attacked. He could try to stay hidden until one of the others found him and tag-team the Con. That could work, even if he didn’t want to risk any of the young bots getting hurt.

He could hope the Con left, but Ratchet wasn’t a fool.

Ratchet peered out from behind the junk pile. The Con was gone. Not particularly surprising. All Decepticons were war machines, and it wasn’t just going to sit there and wait for him.

Ratchet looked in every direction while straining his audials for any sound that he could pick up. He didn’t see or hear anything. If he didn’t know better, he’d think the Con had up and left.

Then something grabbed Ratchet’s pede and pulled him backwards into the junk pile. Ratchet reacted by pointing his magnets towards where the bot had to be and repelling at full force. At first, it was like an unstoppable force meeting an immovable object. Then the Con let go of him, and Ratchet sent himself flying out of the junk pile and through the fence.

Ratchet quickly stood up, looking for the Con. He’d been pushed out of the junk pile, but it was too dark for Ratchet to make out anything other than the fact that it was a mech. It chuckled. “Not bad, old mech…”

Why did that voice sound familiar? Had Ratchet run into this bot before? He didn’t bother to follow this line of thought and used his magnets to throw a pole at the bot, hoping to impale him. It didn’t work. The mech dodged it easily, but that allowed Ratchet to get in close and try to clock him. This failed miserably. The mech grabbed the punch, twisted, threw Ratchet to the ground, and put him in a lock that Ratchet couldn’t get out of.

“Hey…I remember you. Not good with faces, but I never forget a trophy. EMP generator, right? Real useful.”

Ratchet’s systems froze as he finally realized why the voice was so familiar.

No, no, no, no, no, this can’t be happening! Not this mech! Any mech but this mech!

_Arcee…My name is Arcee._

_Bring her to the rendezvous point immediately._

_The Decepticons must not gain access to the codes I carry!_

_Not a bad prize._

_Who is Arcee? Who are you? Who am I?_

Ratchet was brought out of his flashbacks by his attacker grunting right as something exploded. It loosened his hold on Ratchet enough that he was able to break out of his hold. As soon as Ratchet climbed to his feet, he turned to get a good look at his attacker.

Dark, dark green body that looked black at first, bone white, helmless head with black markings, mismatched body parts, it was definitely him.

Lockdown. Lockdown, who Ratchet still had nightmares about. Lockdown who was on Earth with the repair crew.

Lockdown, covered in a light layer of frost, glared at Wheeljack, who was positioned like he’d just thrown something. “Was that supposed to hurt?”

“Uh, maybe.” Wheeljack’s servo went to his pockets, but before he could pull out another grenade, Lockdown had closed the gap and swiped his hook across Wheeljack, leaving a deep gash in his chassis and taking his arm off.

And that was when another grenade hit Lockdown’s back. This one had acid, but it didn’t seem very effective. Lockdown looked at the one who’d thrown it: Bumblebee.

Bumblebee smiled nervously. “That didn’t work as well as I thought it would.”

Of course he had to say something like that. Lockdown seemed nonplussed. He did decide to do something about it though. He rushed forward, clearly planning to attack Bumblebee. Bumblebee tried to dodge and attack with his stingers, but Lockdown was easily able to read his movements. He jammed a knee into Bumblebee’s chassis and then slammed his elbow into the back of Bumblebee’s helm.

Bumblebee was officially out for the count.

Lockdown hefted Bumblebee over his shoulder and walked over to Wheeljack, who tried to back pedal. Lockdown jammed his servo into the gash in Wheeljack’s chassis. Wheeljack made a pained shriek before offlining. Lockdown hefted Wheeljack up and continued out of the junkyard.

Ratchet finally came out of his stupor. “Get back here!”

As he rushed forward, Lockdown picked up the pace to round the fence of the junkyard. The few kliks it took for Ratchet to follow were enough for him to disappear. Ratchet took a couple of moments to look for any trace of the bounty hunter, even switching to his different vision modes.

He couldn’t find anything. Lockdown had gotten away with the two bots Ratchet cared about most. Ratchet punched the fence out of frustration. “Dammit!”

Elsewhere:

Lockdown made it back to his ship with no problems. He strapped the two Autobots to a couple of slabs, making sure they wouldn’t be able to break out. He took a second to examine the acid damage from the grenade. It wasn’t that bad. The acid must not have been strong enough to eat through his high strength armor. That done, he went over to his computer to make a call.

After a couple of moments of waiting, a Decepticon appeared on the screen. His body structure was mainly gray and purple. His faceplate was blue with mismatched red optics. “You have something to report, I presume?”

“Found the Autobots you were looking for,” said Lockdown, gesturing towards the two offline Autobots. “There’s at least one more, but considering what I know about how Autobots work, there’s gotta be at least a couple more besides him. ‘Course, if they’re anything like these, I won’t have to worry about getting the rest of ‘em.”

“These are the Autobots that were able to take out Megatron?” The mech’s face suddenly rotated so that so that he now had a red face and visor. “Bring them here immediately so that we may crush them!”

“Yeah…” This was the one reason Lockdwon didn’t like having Blitzwing as a client. The Icy personality he could stand. The Hothead and Random personalities…not so much. “Like I said, there’s more. I’ll have to go grab them, and then I’ll bring them to you. Just don’t forget my fee.”

Blitzwing slipped back to his Icy personality. “Rest assured, you will be compensated…Provided you can capture all the Autobots and bring them to New Kaon…Alive.” Then he switched to Random. “Oh! Can they sing a song? Can they? Can they? Ahahahahahahah!”

Lockdown switched the videophone off. He didn’t know if insanity was contagious, but he didn’t want to risk it. Besides, he had something much more interesting to focus on. “Time to see what kind of bonuses I’m getting.”

Lockdown was expecting to find something on the larger mech, but he only had a bunch of tool mods. He had some grenades in his storage compartments, but nothing that impressed Lockdown. It looked like they’d been cobbled together out of a bunch of random parts and chemicals. Even if they were effective, Lockdown wouldn’t want to risk it. Chances were they were too unpredictable and would blow up in his face. He’d have to go back and see if the other servo had anything worthwhile in it.

Lockdown moved on to the minibot. Most usually didn’t have worthwhile mods, but occasionally he’d find a gem.

It only took a moment to open up his servos and get a look inside. “The heck?” That circuitry looked quite abnormal. He’d seen Autobot circuitry, and he’d seen Decepticon circuitry. They had different styles, for lack of a better word. This kid’s circuitry didn’t look like either of them.

No…That wasn’t exactly true. That area looked sort of like Autobot circuitry. So did that area. And those areas looked more like Decepticon circuitry. The reason the circuitry looked so odd was because it was a combination of the two.

Lockdown wasn’t a scientist. He didn’t know if that meant anything in particular, but he figured it was worth asking about at the least. Even if he couldn’t use them, someone might be interested in buying it from him. He formed his trusty chainsaw and got to work removing the mod.

Junkyard:

“Bumblebee and Wheeljack got botnapped?!” shouted Bulkhead.

Flareup smacked him. “Keep it down!”

Ratchet let out a long sigh. He felt like he was going to have a breakdown if he wasn’t very careful. “Look, we need to take care of this as quickly as possible. Where’s Prowl?”

“He had to stop and rest,” said Bulkhead. Ratchet looked at Flareup for an explanation.

“He was having trouble balancing,” she explained. “Guess he needs more practice with his vehicle mode. Don’t know why he doesn’t just switch to something with four wheels.”

Of all the times for Prowl to be a stubborn son of a glitch… “You couldn’t give him a lift?”

“Prowl said he needed to learn sometime,” said Bulkhead.

“You gonna tell us what happened?” asked Flareup.

Well, the sooner he explained this, the sooner they could prepare and look for Lockdown and his victims. “The bounty hunter who took them is called Lockdown. He is a very good hunter and a very sadistic mech. I’ve run into him before.”

“Is that where you got that scar?” asked Flareup.

Ratchet blinked. He’d been unconsciously fingering his war wound. He pulled his servo away. “Yeah, we’ve run into each other before…Lockdown enjoys taking trophies from his marks.”

Bulkhead and Flareup’s optics widened. “You mean…he takes parts of their bodies?” asked Bulkhead.

“Yeah, usually their mods,” explained Ratchet. “He uses them himself. His body’s a patchwork of parts.”

“That’s like something out of a horror story,” muttered Flareup.

“Well, this is real,” said Ratchet. “I’m speaking from experience.” Ratchet ignored the winces that caused.

Flareup thought a moment. “You’ve fought him before and survived. Can we try that again?”

Ratchet’s grip on his arm tightened. “No!”

Silence.

“I…wasn’t alone. The other bot…She didn’t make it.”

Flareup winced. “Right, got it.”

“But we can’t just leave them,” protested Bulkhead.

“You think I don’t know that?!” snapped Ratchet. “It’s not that simple. Even if we did know where his base is, we’d have to find a way into it, and if he’s there…I really doubt we’re in any shape to take him on.” Even trained warriors couldn’t beat him. “And even then, he’d find us eventually. It’s part of his job.”

“But-but-Bumblebee and Wheeljack will get chopped up!” protested Bulkhead.

“Not necessarily.” Ratchet picked up Wheeljack’s severed arm. “Wheeljack’s mods are mostly for building and repairing, not the kind of thing Lockdown’s interested in. And he’ll be quick to figure out that Bumblebee’s circuitry is odd. Of course, that might get his interest anyway. If he does decide to remove their mods, I should be able to reattach them and repair any damage.” Physically anyway. He knew that there was only so much one could do to heal mental and emotional trauma. “But we need some sort of plan first.”

At that moment, they heard the sound of a motor. They quickly transformed to vehicle mode. This turned out to be unnecessary as it was just Prowl. His holoform raised an eyebrow before shrugging it off. “Sorry I’m late.”

Ratchet transformed back to robot mode. “Where were you?”

Prowl grunted. “Balancing is very different in vehicle mode.” He frowned when he saw the spilled energon. “What exactly happened?”

“There’s a bounty hunter trying to capture us,” explained Flareup.

Prowl frowned. “I’m guessing he has Bumblebee and Wheeljack.”

“We’ll get them back,” said Bulkhead.

“How?”

Bulkhead hesitated. “Uh…”

“We have no idea,” admitted Flareup.

Ratchet started going over things in his processor. “He probably wants us alive. He obviously has some sort of ship if he came here and plans to leave again, but we have no idea where it is. Then there’s the fact that he is a much stronger fighter than us. We were incredibly lucky when it came to Megatron. We won’t get that sort of luck again.”

“Actually…” Everyone looked at Prowl. “I might know a couple of things that will help.”

Ratchet raised an optic ridge. “Oh, yeah? What?”

“On my way here, I noticed a rather odd building. It wasn’t on the map I was using. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that the shadows weren’t the correct shape. I suspected it was a hologram, similar to the ones I use, but I decided to wait to investigate since it sounded like you were experiencing trouble. It could have something to do with this bounty hunter.”

That…was actually very good news. They might be able to surprise Lockdown with this information. “What’s the other thing?” asked Ratchet.

Prowl hesitated for a klik. He was not looking forward to the fallout from this. “I may know someone willing to help us.”

Ratchet narrowed his optics. “…Who?”

Prowl thought a moment about what to say without giving too much away. “I’d rather not say.” Ratchet gave him a look. “However, I believe they’d be willing to lend their assistance.”

Ratchet crossed his arms. “Not unless I know who they are.”

Prowl did not think Silverbolt or Sari would appreciate him giving away their existence, along with the Dinobots. Not to mention Ratchet probably wouldn’t want their help due to his paranoia towards them. Really, Prowl didn’t know why he trusted them either except that the two seemed to genuinely care about the well being of the Dinobots.

Well, maybe the Dinobots would do. “You remember the animatronics that attacked Bumblebee?”

Now Ratchet looked really suspicious. “Yeah, what about them?”

“Not all of them were destroyed,” admitted Prowl.

“Yeah, some of them reactivated and ran around Detroit,” noted Flareup. She got some surprised looks. “What? I found a newsfeed. Anyway, the local law enforcement couldn’t do anything to stop them, and they eventually ran off into the woods. There’s still a bunch of humans looking for them.”

“Yes, well, I may have stumbled upon them,” admitted Prowl.

Ratchet twitched. “And you didn’t think to tell anyone?!”

“What would you have done?” asked Prowl. “Have them destroyed? They are content and happy as they are. I saw no reason to change their situation.”

“You’re talking like you think they’re alive,” said Flareup.

“That’s because they are,” snapped Prowl

Ratchet growled. “We do not have time for this!”

“Why don’t we send Bulkhead to get the Dinobots?” asked Flareup. “He’s not exactly stealthy.” Bulkhead nodded in agreement.

“I’m not sure how they’d react to him,” admitted Prowl. Not to mention he was afraid Silverbolt or Sari might try to kill Bulkhead if he discovered them.

“We are not using the Dinobots!” insisted Ratchet.

“Why not?” asked Flareup. “Lockdown doesn’t know about them so he wouldn’t expect them.”

Prowl could see this was going nowhere. They needed to get moving, and they needed to move now. He’d have to take action now. Prowl peeled out of there before any of the others could stop him.

Ratchet twitched. “Prowl! Get back here you malfunctioning-” The author regrets to inform you that she cannot write the rest of Ratchet’s yelling due to the content. Suffice to say Flareup and Bulkhead were staring at Ratchet with wide optics by the time he was done.

“That was scary,” whispered Bulkhead.

Flareup nodded. “I’m starting to understand his nickname.”

Ratchet rounded on them. “You wanna say something?!”

The two froze up. “Prowl sent us the coordinates!” shouted Flareup.

Ratchet accessed the coordinates. He actually recognized them. It was supposed to be an empty lot. “Fine. Flareup, you’re with me. Bulkhead, you’ll wait a couple of blocks away so Lockdown won’t notice you. If we need back up, which is likely, we’ll call you.”

The two nodded with no argument. He was the veteran with experience with this particular bot. He likely knew the best course of action.

Shortly, thereafter:

“Well, this is the place,” commented Bulkhead.

_“Quiet. Only use our internal communicators. We can’t risk being overheard.”_

_“Got it.”_

Ratchet and Flareup rolled up to the building before carefully going through the walls. Looks like Prowl was right about it being a hologram. They transformed and took a few kliks to find a way in without making any noise. It involved a creative use of Ratchet’s magnets and a crowbar.

That problem solved, they snuck down the hallway, back to back to try and prevent any possible sneak attacks. Fortunately, it didn’t look like the layout had changed since the last time Ratchet had been here.

It was easy enough to find Wheeljack and Bumblebee. Ratchet vented a few times to try and calm down. It was the exactly the same…

 _“Hey!”_ Flareup ran over and tried to shake Wheeljack back online. _“You okay?”_

Ratchet took a look at the damage. _“Considering what happened, Wheeljack probably went into emergency stasis to prevent any more damage from being done. He’ll need repairs before he can be brought back online.”_

Flareup moved on to Bumblebee and froze. _“Ratchet…”_

Ratchet took a look at Bumblebee. His mods had been removed. Scrap. Now he was going to need to find the two stingers before they could leave. _“See if you can get Wheeljack free. I’ll deal with Bumblebee.”_ Flareup nodded and got to work. Ratchet turned his attention to Bumblebee. _“Bumblebee! Can you hear me?”_

Bumblebee’s optics flickered on. “Wha-Hey! Where are we?”

 _“Sh! You want to let Lockdown know we’re here?”_ Ratchet said. He quickly started undoing Bumblebee’s restraints while Flareup started on Wheeljack. _“Can you walk?”_

_“I think so. Hey, why do my servos hurt so much?”_

Ratchet winced. _“I’ll fix it when we get back.”_ He didn’t want Bumblebee to panic right now. He’d wait to explain the injury until after they were safe and he knew how bad it was.

Then he heard the sound of something dropping behind him. He whirled about and saw that Flareup had collapsed. That could only mean one thing. He ducked, barely dodging a chainsaw that would’ve taken his head off.

“Wondered when you’d show up,” Lockdown drawled, not looking surprised at all. “Kept me waiting long enough.”

“Hey! You leave him-” Bumblebee was cut off when Lockdown used the EMP generator on him, knocking him out again.

“Damn it…” muttered Ratchet. This was a complete disaster. At this rate, they were all going to be killed…or worse. “Damn you!”

Lockdown promptly shot Ratchet with the EMP generator. Ratchet fell to the ground. “Four down.” Lockdown turned and started walking away. “Better go find the other one.”

Then something hit him from behind, causing a jolt of pain. Lockdown grunted and pulled a piece of metal dripping with energon out of his back plates. He turned around and saw Ratchet standing. “What? But that’s not possible!”

Ratchet practically snarled. “I guess it never occurred to you that that EMP generator won’t work on the one bot that was meant to use it.” A common practice really, even if very few realized it.

Lockdown smirked, throwing the piece of metal to the side. “Gotta admit, it’s been a while since someone’s caught me off guard like that.” He formed his chainsaw. “Looks like I’ll have to get serious.”

A sudden roar interrupted what would have been…Well, it wouldn’t have been epic. It would’ve probably been pretty one-sided even with Lockdown’s injury.

Lockdown frowned. “What the Pit was that?”

 _“Ratchet!”_ commed Bulkhead. _“Prowl got the Dinobots! They’re all muddy!”_

Ratchet blinked at the very strange message. “Huh?”

And that was when something burst into the room. It was the Triceratops Dinobot. Like Bulkhead had said, he was covered in mud. It also didn’t actually seem that interested in attacking anything as it just snuffled around the unfamiliar environment. Lockdown frowned and grabbed it. “What’s this supposed to be?”

Lockdown had just enough time to figure out that it felt metallic before it clamped down on his servo with its beaked mouth. Lockdown cursed as he tried to pull free. Whatever it was, it was strong. He formed the EMP generator, ready to blast it.

*RIP!*

Lockdown had to bite back a scream of pain as Ratchet ripped the EMP generator off with his bare servos. Slag, that hurt!

Ratchet pointed the EMP generator straight at Lockdown and pulled the trigger without bothering to check the power setting. Right now, he couldn’t care less about if Lockdown was turned into a vegetable or not.

Lockdown only had enough time for his optics to widen before he dropped like a stone. Ratchet, caught up in the bad memories and the fear that Lockdown was somehow faking, grabbed the nearest blunt object and started pummeling Lockdown with it. He kept it up until the Dinobot suddenly snorted and shook his head and Lockdown a couple of times.

Ratchet’s system cooling fans were running at full strength as he looked Lockdown over. He didn’t look too damaged.

Just to be sure, Ratchet grabbed a scalpel and rammed it into Lockdown’s chassis. If that didn’t kill Lockdown, then Ratchet was going to start questioning if the bounty hunter was even alive.

Now he just had to get everyone out of here and back to the ship. He didn’t want to have to make another trip, so he needed a way to carry all the unconscious bots out at once.

Ratchet looked between the Dinobot and the three offline Autobots.

A moment later, the three were piled onto the Dinobot’s back. The Dinobot didn’t seem to have a problem with this. Ratchet searched frantically through all the equipment, tools, and shudder-inducing trophies for Bumblebee’s stingers.

Found them! Ratchet looked them over. The removal had been a bit messy, but the actual working components looked okay. He should be able to reattach them without too many problems. He slipped them into his subspace. Now he just had to get everyone back to the ship. That would be easier if the Dinobot would let go of Lockdown.

Ratchet tried to pull Lockdown away. The Dinobot stubbornly pulled back and clamped down even harder on the servo. “Oh come on! Let…Go!”

With a snapping sound, Lockdown’s servo was ripped off, the other half still clasped in the Dinobot’s mouth. Ratchet was mildly surprised but didn’t care about the state of Lockdown’s body as long as he could get out of here. He dropped Lockdown and started steering the Dinobot out so he could get leave the ship and as far away from this place as possible.

Well, that was the plan. The rest of the ship was in chaos. There were several mud covered forms running amok with Prowl and Bulkhead trying to bring order.

“Oh, good, you rescued them,” said Prowl nonchalantly, like he wasn’t trying to corral several mud-covered dinosaurs on a space ship.

Bulkhead’s optics widened as he got a good look at the other group, especially what the triceratops Dinobot had in his mouth. “Is that a servo?”

“Don’t think about it,” said Ratchet. “Just help me get these three somewhere out of the way so I can give them a patch job.”

A sudden loud crash echoed from a room. Prowl glanced inside and winced. “I think I better get these five back to the forest before they cause any trouble.”

He had a point there. “Fine. As soon as we get these three back to the junkyard.” Ratchet then narrowed his optics. “Don’t think this is over. We are going to have a long talk after this is over.”

Prowl groaned. “Understood.”

Shortly afterwards, they were in the junkyard again. For reasons that Ratchet suspected he didn’t want to know, the Dinobots obediently followed after Prowl as he led them back to the forest.

Ratchet had just finished welding some metal over the large gashes in Wheeljack’s body, when Flareup started to come to. “Ow…What hit me?”

“Lockdown.”

Flareup blinked and looked around, realizing that she was in a completely different place than she was a moment ago. “…Well, I feel useless.”

“Lockdown? As in the Lockdown you and Wheeljack told me horror stories about?”

Ratchet looked over. Bumblebee had woken out without being noticed and was staring at Ratchet in horror. It looked like he was about to have a nervous breakdown. Ratchet nodded cautiously. “Yeah.”

Bumblebee’s optics widened. “And we survived?!” And now it looked like he was having that breakdown.

Ratchet winced. “Somehow.”

“Are we gonna have to spend the rest of our time on this planet dodging that guy?” asked Flareup.

“…I don’t know,” admitted Ratchet. He’d stabbed Lockdown in the chassis after hitting him in the processor with an EMP. His color hadn’t faded, but that could be because those weren’t his parts or because he took longer to fade than most. Even if he was dead, Ratchet didn’t think he could think of Lockdown as dead unless he saw the corpse. “If he’s still alive, he’ll need time to recover from the injuries he sustained. We’ll go check and see if he’s still there after I’ve made repairs.”

That said, Ratchet tapped Wheeljack’s chassis experimentally. “That’ll hold for now.” He shifted his gaze to Bulkhead. “You still got his servo?”

“Yep!” Bulkhead opened his storage compartment and held it up. “Right here!”

“Good, it’d be a pain if I had to reconstruct an entire arm.” And Ratchet really didn’t think they had the resources.

Bumblebee’s servos were a bit easier to patch up. Ratchet just welded some sheet metal over the exposed circuits and tested it to make sure there weren’t any leaks. It seemed fine. “Okay, let’s go home.”

Much later:

Ratchet let out a vent of relief. Wheeljack’s injuries had been repaired, including his detached servo, and Ratchet had just finished reattaching Bumblebee’s mods. The minibot had slipped into recharge as soon as Ratchet took him out of medical stasis. Ratchet decided to leave him be.

He nearly ran into Flareup as he was leaving the medical bay. “Whoa!” Flareup quickly backed up. “Sorry, about that.”

Ratchet sighed. “It’s fine…You need something?”

“Uh, I’ve got some bad news…”

Ratchet groaned. “What now?”

“Bulkhead and I figured it would be a good idea to go and make sure Lockdown was deactivated,” explained Flareup. “Only, when we got there the fake building hologram and ship were gone.”

“What?!”  
Flareup winced. “Yeah, I guess he’s still alive or has a partner we didn’t know about.”

“Lockdown works alone,” snapped Ratchet. He groaned. “I stabbed him in the chassis with a laser scalpel. How is he still alive?”

Flareup’s optics widened. “You stabbed him? In the chassis?”

Ratchet frowned at the tone of Flareup’s voice. “Lockdown is too dangerous to allow to live, especially when you’re his target.”

Flareup held up her servos. “Okay, okay, I get it.” She backed away. “I’ll just…leave you alone now.” She hurried into a nearby room.

Ratchet huffed. He probably could have handled that better, but he couldn’t really bring himself to care right now, especially since he still had to confront Prowl about keeping the Dinobots secret. He stormed towards Prowl’s room. Prowl was sitting on his berth, calmly waiting for Ratchet. “You’ve got some explaining to do.”

“I believe I explained everything back in the junkyard,” Prowl responded.

“No, you didn’t,” countered Ratchet. “How long have you known about the Dinobots?”

Prowl shrugged. “Not long. 11 solar cycles.”

That wasn’t long by Cybertronian standards, but it was still too long in Ratchet’s opinion. “Why didn’t you say anything?”

Prowl was silent, mainly because he felt he’d already expressed his reasons for that.

Ratchet growled. “How come they didn’t try to attack you like they did Bumblebee?”

Prowl just shrugged at that.

“How often have you been meeting up with the Dinobots since you found them?”

Prowl was silent again.

Ratchet huffed. “Prowl, if I found out you’ve been going behind my back…” Ratchet trailed off as he suddenly remembered why he’d wanted to meet up with the younger bots in the first place. “Wait a minute. What do they use as an energy source?”

Prowl tensed up slightly. “…Energon.”

“You’re the one who’s been stealing energon!”

“Yes,” admitted Prowl.

Ratchet promptly hit the ninja bot over the head with a wrench. “Why would you take our one power source and give to a pack of wild bots!”

“Because they would starve otherwise,” said Prowl. “They may be destructive, but they are alive. I don’t know how. I don’t know why. However, I believe there must be a reason for them to have come to life. As such, I refuse to let them starve to death. Do what you wish, but I will not abandon them.”

Ratchet twitched. He could understand preserving life. He was a medic. He was all about keeping others alive and healthy. He hated when bots kept secrets, lied, stole from him, and refused to cooperate.

Prowl was doing 3 out of 4 of these things, possibly all 4 of them.

“You’re not leaving this ship unless Wheeljack or I give you permission, barring an emergency,” said Ratchet in a steely voice. “And you’re going to be taking over all of the chores until further notice, and I do mean ALL of them.”

Prowl nodded. “Understood.”

Ratchet gave Prowl another look before growling and stomping out of the room. Prowl waited until he was sure Ratchet was gone before he relaxed and slumped a bit.

The Dinobots and Sari better appreciate what he’s going through for them.

Elsewhere…

Nancy was sleeping in her bed, so she didn’t even notice when a dark, sleek form crawled in through her window. It stepped softly on the bed so as not to wake up Nancy and jumped onto the floor where Soundwave was looking at a laptop. Soundwave turned to the form. “Ravage: Report.”

Ravage, the other robot’s name, tugged out a cord and plugged it into the USB port on the laptop. Various pictures and information flashed across the screen, including images of the Autobots.

“Report: Very favorable. Megatron: Will be pleased.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _And now Butterflies presents: Questions and Answers with Vector Prime._
> 
> “You’ll be happy to know that the author’s hair is back to its normal color.”
> 
> “Why would they care about that?”
> 
> “Unfortunately, as of…Monday, we don’t have any new reviews. So there is nothing for me to explain or address.” He turned to KHGiggle. “Maybe you need to work on your writing style.”
> 
> “Hey! Not all stories have to be super popular! Lots of writers have stories that don’t have a lot of fans! Anyway, I might get more hits once I finish this season and move on to the next one.”
> 
> “You could try drawing something and posting it on that art site you’re so fond of perusing.”
> 
> “Have you seen my drawings?”
> 
> Vector paused. “Good point. You should stick to writing.”
> 
> “Oh! Maybe I could get a photo!”
> 
> “How would you…” Vector glared off screen. “No, I am not placing you in that universe just so you can snap pictures.”
> 
> “Why not?”
> 
> “That’s something Miko Nakadai would do.”
> 
> “I’m not that irresponsible.”
> 
> “And then there’s what would happen if you encountered any of the inhabitants in a reality you have unintentionally altered.”
> 
> “What would happen?”
> 
> “Mass chaos, worm holes, timeline bending, Unicronian viruses, angry time guardians…Need I go on?”
> 
> “I’ll stay here.”
> 
> “Good. Less work for me.”
> 
> _This has been Questions and Answers with Vector Prime._


	8. Courage

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prowl asks for a favor.

“There! All done!” Wheeljack happily stood back to examine the new energon converter. “That should take care of that.” With a second converter, they wouldn’t have to worry about an energon shortage. Now to get back to making replacement parts for the ship. He’d fallen really behind on that in the last few solar cycles.

Wheeljack had just found that doohickey that separates and purifies metals when he heard a tap behind him. He turned and saw Prowl standing there with a bucket. “Hi Prowl! What’s up? Need some more solvent?”

Prowl shook his head. “I’m fine.” He actually wasn’t bothered by doing all the chores that Ratchet could think of. It wasn’t the first time he’d had to do something like this, and he could think of much worse punishments. He only had one problem with this really. “I was just wondering if you could do something for me.”

Wheeljack shrugged. “Sure, as long as it’s within reason…and as long as it doesn’t involve making high grade. Ratchet’s forbidden me from trying that whenever Bumblebee’s around.”

“No, nothing like that. I’ve been forbidden to leave the ship-”

“Oh, you actually want to leave the ship?” asked Wheeljack. Prowl nodded. “Great! Ratchet’s being suspicious and paranoid and won’t let any of the kids leave without my supervision. Bumblebee’s just traumatized and doesn’t wanna go outside. Flareup and Bulkhead are nervous, but I think I could convince them. I thought it might be the same with you, but this makes more sense.”

“Yes, anyway, it’s been a few days,” continued Prowl. “The Dinobots are probably running low on energon. Would you mind taking them some?”

“Sure! I’ve been wanting to see them for myself. Plus I’m running low on materials anyway. It’s about time to do a supplies run.” Wheeljack thought for a moment. “Maybe I can talk the kids into coming along. If we can go about without getting attacked, it might make them feel a bit better.”

Prowl frowned. “I can’t say how the Dinobots will react to that. They helped against Lockdown, but some of them are still quite violent.”

Wheeljack waved Prowl’s concern off. “Hey, if you talked them into helping us, they can’t be that bad. Besides, Ratchet doesn’t want me going out on my own either so I kind of have to.”

Prowl nodded. “He’s taking this hard.”

“Yes, well, he had a really bad experience with Lockdown during the war and had a near repeat of it. I think it’s causing his PTSD to flare,” explained Wheeljack. “He’s probably gonna act like this unless we can contact Cybertron for backup, which isn’t likely since I’m still repairing the communication array, or Lockdown is found and deactivated, which would take a miracle.” Wheeljack sighed. “I keep trying to talk with him about it, but he always changes the subject…”

Prowl considered asking what had happened, but decided not to press the subject. He could respect wanting to avoid a painful memory. “We set up a drop point, since I have had trouble locating them.”

Wheeljack chuckled. “Out snuck you?”

“I think it’s more that I was short on time,” explained Prowl. “I could only spend so much time outside before Ratchet started contacting me and reminding me that I’m supposed to be taking it easy.”

“Sure it is…” teased Wheeljack. “So, where is the drop point?”

Prowl sent over the coordinates. “There’s a group of stones there. I put the cubes in a space there.”

“Got it. How much would they need?”

“At least two each. The larger ones will require three.”

“I’ll just go with 15 and get the kids to help me carry them,” said Wheeljack. He stepped around Prowl. “I’ll be back when I get back. Be good for Ratchet!”

Prowl just went back to cleaning.

Within a few minutes, Wheeljack had rounded everyone up. “This is safe, right?” asked Bumblebee.

“Yeah, don’t worry. Ratchet stabbed Lockdown pretty close to the spark chamber,” Wheeljack reminded them. “Lockdown’s gonna need time to recover from that, especially since he’s no medic. I doubt we’ll be seeing him any time soon.” Wheeljack handed the kids a few energon cubes before slipping some into his subspace. “Everybody ready? Any questions? No? Good.” Wheeljack practically pranced over to the airlock. “C’mon!”

Bulkhead and Flareup exchanged a look before following after Wheeljack. Bumblebee took a moment to gather his courage before running after them.

Nothing would happen while he stuck with the group, right?

Be that as it may, Bumblebee was still rather jumpy as they walked through the forest. Bulkhead and Flareup were noticeably nervous as well. Wheeljack sighed. He was worried about this. Every bot in the war ended up paranoid and skittish after a while due to the lifestyle. It was a consequence of surviving battles with the knowledge you still had many more to go. He’d been hoping they’d be able to escape that since Megatron had been killed during their one encounter with him. Prowl had been the only one to encounter Starscream, and he’d handled it pretty well.

Then Lockdown decided to come and dispense his own brand of emotional trauma.

Not that Wheeljack didn’t understand. He’d gone through some traumatizing stuff during the war himself. You had to learn how to roll with it unless you wanted to have a breakdown from the stress.

How to keep them from getting that bad? He knew what worked for himself, but how to go about cheering them up? Wheeljack was scanning for anything that might be interesting enough to distract them.

That deer was still following them. Weren’t they supposed to be a timid species? Maybe there was something else interesting to focus on.

Well, what do you know? Wheeljack walked over to a rock face almost completely covered in vines. “Look at this!”

“Vines?” asked Bumblebee.

“No, this.” Wheeljack darted through the vines, disappearing completely. The kids drew back in surprise before Wheeljack stuck his head back out. “These vines are covering an opening in the stone that’s big enough for us to fit through.” He darted back inside the cave.

The kids exchanged looks for a moment before pushing the vines aside and entering the cave. It didn’t look that special. Yeah, it was big enough for them to stand in, but that couldn’t be that unusual. Something seemed to have caught his attention though. “Hello…” Wheeljack turned on his headlights. “That’s interesting…”

Bulkhead peered over Wheeljack’s shoulder. “Are those cave paintings?”

“Well, it’s a cave, and it looks like paint,” muttered Wheeljack.

“No, I mean pictures ancient humans drew on cave walls when they were learning to use tools,” explained Bulkhead. Despite all appearances, Bulkhead was a talented artist and knew a lot about various art styles. It sounded like he’d picked up a bit about Earth’s art styles as well. “This looks different from the pictures I’ve seen though.”

By this time, Flareup and Bumblebee had turned their attention to the pictures and turned on their headlights. “These are pretty cool!” said Bumblebee. “This one’s a buffalo! This one’s a wolf! This one…looks violent.”

Flareup frowned as she examined the pictures. “You said humans painted these, right?”

Bulkhead nodded. “Yeah.”

“Then how did they get up so high?” asked Flareup. “These are at our optic level.”

Bulkhead blinked. “Uh, I dunno.” He turned to Wheeljack. “Did they have ladders back then?”

Wheeljack blinked and shrugged. “I dunno. You’ll have to ask an anthropologist.”

“A what?”

“Uh…” Wheeljack wasn’t sure how to describe the term. “A scientist that specializes in the history of human development…I think…There’s not a Cybertronian equivalent I can compare it to.”

“Guys…” said Bumblebee, his optics wide. “I found something that looks like Cybertronix!”

That got everyone’s attention and instantly brought them over to where Bumblebee was standing.

“This does look like a glyph!”

“It’s really messy!”

“I think it says family,” said Flareup. “And the things around it look sort of like humans.”

“Spread out and see if you can find anything else,” instructed Wheeljack. “This could be important.”

They spread out. “I think I found some bots!” said Bulkhead.

“I found some cities!” said Bumblebee.

“I found more glyphs,” said Flareup. “Whoever wrote this had really messy servo-writing. I can’t tell what half of this is supposed to be.”

“He’s not very good at drawing either,” commented Bulkhead. The proportions of the bots were awful.

Wheeljack had to agree with that. Whoever had drawn all of this stuff had no artistic talent. He figured most of the stuff had been drawn out of boredom. “This is very odd.”

“So, who did this?” asked Bumblebee. “I mean…I thought we were the only ones here besides the Decepticons, and this doesn’t seem like something they’d do.”

Flareup ran a servo over one of the drawings. “These are pretty old. I think these were done a long time before we woke up.”

“So…Who did these?” asked Bulkhead.

“Megatron?” suggested Bumblebee. This got him some surprised looks. He shrugged. “We never actually saw him die, and he’d have a lot of free time.”

Wheeljack considered that. Megatron did have a reputation of being impossible to kill, and considering all the stuff they’d already encountered, it might be possible for Megatron to suddenly pop up out of nowhere…okay maybe not the best words to describe the most terrifying warlord in history. Wheeljack certainly couldn’t think of any reason for Megatron to go around doing random drawings after crashing on Earth. The guy had been missing an arm. The re-entry must have done some damage too, although Wheeljack couldn’t say how much damage since he didn’t know how thick Megatron’s armor was. If Wheeljack had been that damaged, he knew he wouldn’t be interested in drawing anything. Plus, some of these pictures seemed too…cheery in Wheeljack’s opinion. He couldn’t ever picture Megatron drawing smiling faces. “I don’t think we have to worry about this being his work.”

“Dinobots?” suggested Bulkhead.

Flareup shook her head. “Too young.”

“But who else is there?” argued Bulkhead.

Everyone looked at the various glyphs and pictures. Bulkhead had a very good point. Did this cave belong to a Cybertronian they had yet to encounter? The implications were staggering. Was it an Autobot ally or another Decepticon to worry about? How long had they been here? Why had they come to this planet in the first place? Had it been an accident or had they come here with a purpose?

Did they ever leave the planet?

Were they trapped here too?

Flareup stepped towards the exit. “Maybe we should leave. We don’t know how the owner will react to us being here.”

Wheeljack nodded. “Yeah, good point.” He took one more good look around the cave to see if there was anything that would give him some kind of clue as to the identity of the owner of the cave, or at least their chosen faction. Nothing. He sighed and left the cave with the kids, mildly disappointed.

“So, who do you think lives there?” asked Bumblebee.

“I’d say someone pretty tall,” said Flareup. “Some of those drawings were pretty high up…And it’s usually Decepticons that are that big.”

“What if it was one bot standing on top of another?” asked Bumblebee.

“That could work,” admitted Flareup.

“I dunno,” said Bulkhead. “It looked like they were all done in the same style by the same guy.”

“Okay, it was just one guy then,” said Bumblebee.

“Unless it was a set of twins,” mused Wheeljack. “But the chances of running into twins on a virtually unknown planet are astronomical.”

“Maybe we can do some sort of spying operation to see if someone returns to the cave,” suggested Flareup. “Wait. No, the only one who’s good at that sort of thing is Prowl, and Ratchet’s still not allowing him to leave the ship or fight.”

“I guess there’s nothing we can do about it,” said Bulkhead.

Bumblebee made a mildly annoyed sound. “That’s gonna drive me crazy, not knowing at all.”

Flareup grinned as she thought of some of the broadcasts she’d been watching. “There’s actually a lot of interesting unsolved mysteries on this planet,” said Flareup. “Some of the theories for those are that aliens did it.”

“…Seriously?” asked Bumblebee. Flareup nodded. “We didn’t even know this planet existed before we landed here.”

“But an alien is responsible for this one,” pointed out Flareup.

Bumblebee paused. “Hey, does that means other species might’ve found this planet already and just not mentioned it? Maybe we can ask them for help.”

“I don’t think so,” said Wheeljack. “If a responsible race found this planet, they wouldn’t interfere and would allow the inhabitants to develop on their own. If an irresponsible race found the planet and started mucking about, they likely would take a few humans and eventually get found out and cause a scandal throughout most of the galaxy.”

“There are stories of alien abductions,” said Flareup. “They sound sort of like drunk frat boy initiations though.”

“That could be a possibility,” admitted Wheeljack. Some fraternities pulled stunts like that. Wheeljack could happily say he’d never belonged to that kind of fraternity…or any sort of fraternity really.

What was the appeal of fraternities anyway?

They were still musing over the possible identity of the cave’s inhabitant and reports of alien encounters when they reached the coordinates that Prowl had given them. “This looks like the place.” Wheeljack started placing the energon in the pile of rocks. “Okay, hand me your energon.”

Flareup and Bulkhead pulled out their energon cubes out with no problem. When Bumblebee pulled his out something darted out of the surrounding trees and slammed into him, knocking him to the ground. The other three Autobots freaked and readied their weapons. Bumblebee shrieked and darted out from under his attacker. Said attacker…started nomming on the energon Bumblebee had dropped.

After a moment of tensely waiting to see what the attacker would do, the Autobots started to relax and finally took a good look at the attacker. He was mainly gray, blue, and red with a red crest and what looked like a collared cape. He also had blue optics, so he probably wasn’t a Decepticon.

The mystery bot seemed more interested in the energon than the other bots, ignoring them completely. “Hey! What was that for?!” shouted Bumblebee.

The mech blinked. “What?”

“Ramming into me like that!”

The mech looked around in confusion. “No sheep. You stupid?”

“Hey!”

“Who’re you?” asked Wheeljack.

“Swoop.”

“Are you an Autobot?”

“What Autobot?”

Wheeljack blinked. “Are you a Decepticon then?”

“What Decepticon?”

Wheeljack balked. “Okay, guess you’re a Neutral then.”

Flareup had spent this time examining Swoop. “What are you? This doesn’t look like any alt mode I’ve seen before.”

“Swoop Dinobot!”

The Autobots stared at Swoop. They had all gotten a look at the Dinobots when they first came to life and tried to kill Bumblebee. “You don’t look like a Dinobot,” said Bulkhead. Swoop looked a little odd, but he definitely wasn’t a dinosaur.

Then Swoop transformed to his alt mode. He certainly looked like a dinosaur now. While the Autobots stared at him in shock, Swoop decided to start pecking at another cube.

Then Wheeljack interfered. “This is amazing!” Swoop squawked as Wheeljack pulled out a wing to examine it. “You went from being a simple animatronic to a sentient being!” Swoop pulled his wing out of Wheeljack’s grasp. Wheeljack decided to move on to the crest instead. “And you can even transform like us!” Swoop jerked away before transforming and hiding behind Bulkhead. “Do you have a spark?” He tried to follow Swoop. Swoop ran to the other side of Bulkhead. Wheeljack tried to follow, causing them to run around a confused Bulkhead. “The implications could be staggering!”

“Help!” shouted Bulkhead.

Bumblebee was laughing too hard to help. Flareup rolled her optics. “Oh for the love of…” She reached over, grabbed Wheeljack, and pulled him away from Bulkhead. “Cut that out! You’re scaring him!”

“But-”

“Do you want to piss him or any of his siblings off?” asked Flareup.

“He wasn’t pissed off. He was just really uncomfortable,” reasoned Wheeljack.

Swoop peered out from behind Bulkhead with big optics. “He crazy?”

Bumblebee thought for a moment before nodding. “Pretty much.”

“Look, Prowl just asked us to drop off some energon for you guys,” said Flareup. “We’ve done that, and you can take it to your friends.”

Swoop tilted his head. “Who Prowl?”

“He’s about this tall,” said Bumblebee, holding his servo up above his head. “Black and gold. Looks like he’s wearing a pointy pair of glasses.”

Swoop brightened. “Oh, you mean Daddy.”

Everyone froze. “Daddy?”

Swoop nodded. “Daddy.”

The Autobots were silent. Then they all burst into laughter. Swoop looked around in confusion. “Why you laugh? What funny?”

Flareup managed to calm down enough that she was just giggling. “He just doesn’t seem like the type. Anyway, he did send us.”

“How you know Daddy?” asked Swoop.

“We work with him,” explained Wheeljack.

Swoop tilted his head. “You pack mates?”

“Sort of.”

“Oh…Why Daddy not come?”

He did something bad and isn’t allowed to leave our territory,” said Flareup.

“Okay,” said Swoop, easily believing the explanation Flareup gave him. He started gathering up the various cubes. He scurried off as soon as he had as much as he could carry.

“Well, that was weird,” commented Bumblebee.

“But adorable,” added Bulkhead.

Flareup snickered. “I’m still can’t get over the idea of Prowl being a daddy.” That got some chuckles from everyone else as well. He was never gonna live that down.

“Well, that’s one chore down,” said Wheeljack. “Now we just have to get some scrap metal. C’mon. It’s getting late enough that no one should be around, and if we wait too long, we’ll attract too much attention.”

“Okay, let’s get going,” said Bulkhead.

“Yeah, Ratchet’s gonna start to worry if we’re out too late,” said Bumblebee.

“That’s okay,” said Wheeljack. “I’ll deal with that. I’ve got plenty of experience doing so.”

“Fine by me,” said Bumblebee.

As they made their way out of the forest, Wheeljack couldn’t help but let his head fins light up happily. While it hadn’t been quite in the way he’d expected, this outing had served to raise the kids’ spirits somewhat. Looks like the Dinobots weren’t nearly as scary as they first appeared to be. In fact, Swoop had been almost overwhelmingly cute and youngling-like.

Wheeljack didn’t know if the other Dinobots were the same, but it would certainly explain why there were no reports of dinosaur attacks since the Dinobots had escaped into the forest. It was certainly one less thing to worry about for the moment.

Yeah, there was that weird cave, but Wheeljack wasn’t going to worry about that unless they found out the occupant was dangerous, and if Prowl had gone in the forest without running into said occupant, it probably wasn’t going to cause them any harm.

The scavenging went off without a hitch, and they made it back to the lake without incident. Wheeljack was feeling pretty good about himself.

Then they came out of the airlock and found themselves face-to-face with a furious Ratchet, arms crossed and everything. Wheeljack held up his servos. “Before you say anything, it was my idea, and I talked them all into coming along!”

Ratchet immediately hit Wheeljack in the head with a wrench hard enough to leave a sizeable dent. “What in the name of Primus possessed you to go gallivanting about when we know Lockdown is around?!”

“In my defense, we did need supplies!”

“Then you let me know and we go to the surface! The kids don’t need to put themselves in danger like that!”

While Ratchet was blowing up at Wheeljack, the kids snuck away to avoid his wrath. Wheeljack couldn’t blame them. Ratchet was pretty darn scary when he got like this. “Calm down! It’s not a big deal!”

That got him another wrench to the head. “Not a big deal?! They could’ve been captured, tortured, and killed!”

“I know you’re worried about them! I am too! But I couldn’t just let them become so frightened that they locked themselves away! That’s no way to live!”

“At least they’d be safe!”

“They’re not gonna end up like Arcee!”

Ratchet froze for a moment before his optics narrowed. “Don’t you dare bring her up,” he said in a steely voice.

Wheeljack winced at the tone and look. Oh yeah, he was definitely walking on eggshells now. “Look, I know you take the loss of every patient personally. I know you took…what happened personally. But there wasn’t anything anyone could do.”

“Shut up.”

“No, you need to hear this,” said Wheeljack. “Arcee chose to put herself in danger. Lockdown would’ve gone after even if you weren’t there, and if it hadn’t been you that found her, the Decepticons would’ve gotten the codes, Project Omega would’ve failed, the Decepticons would have won, we’d be dead, the younglings wouldn’t even have been brought online-” This time Wheeljack was hit so hard that he started to see error messages.

“You. Don’t. Know. Anything,” ground out Ratchet. “You weren’t there. You don’t know what it was like. For either of us.”

To Ratchet’s surprise, Wheeljack started laughing. It wasn’t Wheeljack’s usual jolly laughter either. It was hysterical, tinged with sense of sadness. “You know what? You’re right. I wasn’t there, but I have a pretty good idea of what it must’ve been like.”

Ratchet snorted. “Oh yeah? And how would you know that?”

“Because no one came to rescue me last time Lockdown captured me.”

Ratchet was stunned into silence. “What?”

“That’s right. This is actually the second time I ran into Lockdown!” continued Wheeljack. “And he took my mods, which were completely different back then by the way, handed me over to the Decepticons, and went on his merry way. And I don’t know if having your memory wiped or being tortured for information or skills is worse, but at least I’ve made an effort to move on with my life!”

Ratchet stared at Wheeljack in a new, horrified light. “Then those scars…” Whenever Ratchet gave Wheeljack his regular examination, he’d notice various scars on his protoform. He’d always assumed they were from a particularly nasty accident, but now…

Wheeljack nodded, placing his servos on his hips. “That’s right, and for the record, I wasn’t nearly so accident prone before then.”

Ratchet actually, drew back, like he was seeing Wheeljack for the first time. Wheeljack had always been friendly, reckless, ridiculous, loving life no matter what came to pass, always playing with Bumblebee when Ratchet felt like he couldn’t stand to be around the youngling anymore…

How had Wheeljack managed to be so normal after such a traumatizing series of events? That was far worse than what Ratchet had been through, and he could fully admit he had never fully recovered.

It suddenly occurred to Ratchet that Wheeljack was much stronger than he had ever thought.

“Ratchet? You okay?” asked Wheeljack.

“Why didn’t you ever say anything?” asked Ratchet.

Wheeljack shrugged. “Like I said, trying to move on. And since you seemed so…scarred, it just didn’t seem like a good idea to ever bring it up.”

Ratchet winced. He’d always made it clear he didn’t want to talk about the war whenever someone asked about it, Wheeljack included. “I…” What could he say to that? “…apologize.”

Wheeljack immediately snapped back to his normal self. “Apology accepted.” He chuckled. “And since we’ve made up, I suppose now would be a good time to tell you that while we were taking some energon to the Dinobots we ran into one of them. It was friendly and adorable and could transform and talk.”

Ratchet could only stare at Wheeljack before groaning and facepalming. “Please tell me you’re joking.”

“I joke about a lot of stuff,” admitted Wheeljack. “But I wouldn’t joke about something serious like that.”Ratchet sighed. “As if things weren’t complicated enough already.”

“It also called Prowl ‘Daddy’,” added Wheeljack. “Explains a lot doesn’t it?”

Ratchet mulled over this information. “Did it have a spark?”

“I couldn’t check.”

Well, Ratchet wasn’t going to think too much on it for now. There wasn’t anything they could do to change it, and he could only think of a couple of outcomes. Better to push it to the back of his processor in favor of more immediate problems. Ratchet grabbed Wheeljack’s servo and led him away. “C’mon, let’s get you fixed up.”

“Oh goody! A lecture-free repair!”

“Don’t push it.”

Not too far away, Prowl was washing the walls. He was waiting until Wheeljack and the others got back to move on to mopping. The punishment detail wasn’t really that bad. It sort of reminded him of when he first became Yoketron’s (unwilling) student.

“Prowl!”

Prowl jumped and spun, nearly taking Flareup’s head off with a shuriken. Fortunately, she ducked quickly enough to prevent that. Flareup stared at Prowl, optics wide in horror. “What’re you trying to do?! Kill me?!”

Prowl was also horrified by his reaction and quickly put the shuriken away. He’d nearly made a horrible mistake. “I’m terribly sorry. I didn’t mean to attack you…Where did you come from?”

Flareup gave him a weird look. “You didn’t hear me?”

“I heard you shout my name next to my head,” deadpanned Prowl.

“Not that. The two times I called you before that. I just shouted that last time ‘cause I thought you were ignoring me,” explained Flareup.

Prowl blinked. How’d he miss something like that? He should have noticed Flareup approaching him, even if she hadn’t said anything. “I…must be out of practice. Or I was lost in my thoughts. Maybe a combination of both.”

Flareup gave him a worried look. “You sure? Maybe you should go see Ratchet.”

Prowl shook his head. “No, I’m sure it was a one-time thing. I’ll just need to practice a bit once I get the chance.”

Flareup sighed. “Fine, if you say so.”

“Why were you calling me anyway? Did you need something?”

Flareup grinned. “What’s it feel like to be a daddy?”

Prowl’s optics widened. “How did you hear about that?”

“We ran into Swoop while we were dropping off the energon,” explained Flareup. “He was pretty friendly all things considered.”

Prowl groaned. “Great…”

Flareup tilted her head curiously at his tone. “What’s wrong?”

“I was hoping you wouldn’t meet up.”

Flareup frowned. “Why? What’s the big deal? Is it because they’re intelligent and can transform?”

“You know about that?”

“He demonstrated for us,” explained Flareup, crossing her arms. “I gotta admit, they certainly seem alive to me. I wouldn’t be surprised if they had sparks.” She paused and gave Prowl a meaningful look. “Do they have sparks?” Prowl was silent. When he maintained the silence, Flareup took that as a ‘yes’ and couldn’t help but sigh. “Look, I get not wanting to share information. If I could get away with it, I’d never let anyone know that I got kicked out of school because I accidentally blew up my drill sergeant’s house.”

“Why am I not surprised?” drawled Prowl.

Flareup heated up slightly. “I said I was sorry!” She quickly regained her composure. “Anyway, I don’t think you needed to keep this from us. Ratchet knows what it’s like to adopt a youngling unexpectedly. He might’ve been annoyed, but he wouldn’t have left them to survive on their own. The only reason he was so upset was because he hates when bots hide stuff from him.”

“I still stand by my decision,” said Prowl.

“Stubborn son of a glitch,” muttered Flareup. She placed her servos on her hips. “And what exactly were you planning to do when we finally leave this planet? We can’t exactly stay here. We gotta get the Allspark somewhere safe.”

“I’ll leave them an energon converter,” said Prowl. “This planet has plenty of energy sources they can use.”

Flareup stared at Prowl in shock. “You’re just gonna leave them here?”

“Yes, they wouldn’t be happy on Cybertron. Those with alt modes based on organic creatures are usually looked down upon, even treated as lesser beings. They wouldn’t take this well since they’re sparklings in mind. This could cause some very extreme misunderstandings. Also, they enjoy rough housing, and a couple of them have short tempers.”

“Okay…I see where you’re coming from,” admitted Flareup. “But we can’t just leave them here.”

“And why not?” questioned Prowl.

“Energon converters need regular maintenance,” explained Flareup. “Wheeljack actually spends a lot of time taking care of the converters we have, and you need to have a basic understanding of engineering to do this. If you left a converter exposed to the elements it wouldn’t last very long. Unless you want the Dinobots to starve to death, we have to take them with us when we leave this planet.”

Prowl froze up. He hadn’t even thought of that. He’d expected that Sari and Silverbolt would refuse to give up the Dinobots, and he’d thought an energon converter and instructions would be enough to keep them online, but if what Flareup had said was true… “I need a new plan.”

“What’s wrong with just taking them back to Cybertron?” asked Flareup. “It would be an adjustment, but maybe if we got them to live in the ship for a little while before returning, it might not be so bad.”

“It’s not that simple,” said Prowl.

Flareup looked at Prowl in confusion before a look of comprehension passed across her face. “There’s something else, isn’t there?”

“I cannot say.”

Flareup groaned. “Really? After all the slag you got for keeping the Dinobots secret?”

“This is different.”

Flareup threw her servos. “Fine.” She turned on her heal and started walking away. “I hope it’s worth it.”

Prowl couldn’t help but internally sigh. Now he felt worried about the Dinobots, and Flareup had made it quite clear she was upset with him. She probably wasn’t going to trust him again. 

Trust once lost is not easily regained.

Prowl shook his head. Remembering the words of his teacher just made the whole situation more painful.

“There’s a cave full of Cybertronix out there?” asked Ratchet as he carefully removed the dents he’d given Wheeljack.

Wheeljack nodded. “Yeah, it was messy writing, but it was definitely Cybertronix. We came up with some crazy theories, but I doubt most of them are even remotely possible. All we could tell was that it was a Cybertronian.”

Ratchet grunted. “Decepticon?”

Wheeljack shrugged. “There weren’t any faction symbols. Now that I think about it, a Decepticon would’ve left that behind, if only to prove they had a claim to the planet. An Autobot might’ve done the same thing. Do you suppose it could be a Neutral?”

“Maybe, a lot went into hiding when the war broke out. Most decided not to return to Cybertron. If it was a Neutral, the owner won’t be interested in attacking us at least.”

“Maybe they can help us!” suggested Wheeljack. “I’m not sure how they’d be able to help, but any assistance would be appreciated at this point.”

Ratchet just grunted in response.

“Flareup suggested observing the cave to see if anyone returns to it,” continued Wheeljack. “What do you think?”

“No. The kids can go outside. You’ve proven your point in that regard. Staying in one place for an extended period of time would probably end up catching someone’s attention.”

Wheeljack nodded. “Good point. I think we should figure out who it is at some point though. I wouldn’t want to leave someone here when they had a chance to be rescued.”

“And if they’re already deceased? That’s the most likely outcome.”

Wheeljack was silent. “We can at least bring the body back. No matter the faction, they deserve that at least.”

Ratchet nodded in agreement. If this was an MIA bot, he or she might have loved ones wondering what happened to them.

Ratchet briefly wondered how Cybertron was dealing with their disappearance in particular. Normally, no one would bat an optic at a repair crew disappearing, but they had gotten out that they had the Allspark so Ratchet was sure there had been search and rescue crews looking for them, but how many had been concerned for the bots rather than the Allspark?

“You okay?” asked Wheeljack. “You’re getting that depressed feeling you get when your thoughts wander.”

Ratchet shook his head. “It’s nothing. Just thinking about search and rescue attempts.”

Wheeljack gave Ratchet a look that clearly said the explanation wasn’t believed but dropped the subject. They’d had enough spar-to-spark talks for one solar cycle.

It was time to rest.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _And now, Butterflies presents: Questions and Answers with Vector Prime._
> 
> Vector frowned as he studied the chapter. “Didn’t this used to be two chapters?”
> 
> “One was too short, and the other was kind of pointless. I figured combining the two would improve the quality,” explained KHGiggle.
> 
> “What was the point of this chapter?”
> 
> “Recovery from Lockdown, physically, emotionally, and mentally. Also a bit of character development on the side.”
> 
> Vector nodded. “I can understand the need for a recovery chapter after that. And the next order of business is…” Vector paused when he read the datapad he’d pulled from nowhere. “Pteranodons aren’t dinosaurs. We know that, but the Autobots don’t. I’m not sure why I needed to explain that…”
> 
> “And finally, reviews. tamersten expressed compliments about the story and hopes KHGiggle will continue it.”
> 
> “Which I will,” interrupted KHGiggle. “It would take my sudden death to make me stop writing and updating…or very, very bad writer’s block, but I’d at least publish an omake so I could let others know.”
> 
> “Not to mention I plan to make you finish this if need be,” muttered Vector. “That is all the points of interest as of now. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask.”
> 
> _This has been Questions and Answers with Vector Prime._


	9. Wheeljack has a Bad Night

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> As the chapter title says, Wheeljack has a very bad night. There are some unexpected side effects.

Hector was really starting to hate his life. He had to spend pretty much all of his spare time looking around for information for Megatron or dealing with security issues for Powell. His marriage and family life was really starting to suffer because of it.

He had to admit that he did occasionally get unexpected benefits, like watching the lunar rover going over the surface of the moon. _“Have to say, I’m a bit surprised you want to see this. What does our moon matter to you?”_

**Nothing that concerns you.**

Hector let out an annoyed sigh and kept watching the screen. While some of the footage was interesting, most of it was pretty boring and monotonous.

Then the camera was suddenly knocked forward and broke to static.

Hector blinked. He typed a couple of keys to try and restore the connection, but it wasn’t working. _“Looks like something destroyed the camera and possibly the rover too. Tough luck.”_

He felt Megatron’s annoyance filtering through, but that was it. He generally left Hector alone when something went wrong if there was nothing Hector could’ve done to stop it. **How goes your research into the girl and the identities of the Autobots?**

 _“Well, it’s been narrowed down. Turns out one of the alt modes was a DeLorean, which isn’t exactly common. The paint job was especially unique so I was able to narrow it down to a single vehicle. I’ve identified the ambulance since it never responded to any emergencies. I also found an oddly colored SWAT van that I’m sure is an Autobot, but I’m not 100% sure. The motorcycle turned out to be unique enough that I was able to narrow it down, and I narrowed the yellow one down to two possibilities. As one was owned by the captain of our police department, the other one is obviously the Autobot. You said there was a sixth, but I don’t know what his alt mode looks like except that it likely is gold, black, khaki, or a combination of the three. Given, they haven’t been going into the city much since that Lockdown showed up.”_ Not that Hector could blame them. The mech made Boba Fett look like a philanthropist.

**And the girl?**

Hector pulled up every available picture of the girl, which wasn’t many, and she was wearing a mask in most of them. _“Sari Sumdac has absolutely no record of her existence, no social security number, no birth certificate, no school record, Prof. Sumdac didn’t even write a will. To complicate matters, she’s living off the grid, which means I can’t track any redirected water or electricity. Truthfully, if Soundwave hadn’t gotten her name and picture, I wouldn’t even know her identity. At this point, I think it would be best to instruct Soundwave to try and locate her with that cat of his.”_

**Do it.**

Hector did as he was ordered. _“Honestly, I don’t think there’s anything else we can do unless they come back into the city. We’ll just have to wait for Big Brother to catch them if they make any more jaunts.”_

If Megatron caught the reference, he made no show of it.

As for what happened to the rover…

*CRUNCH!*

“Careful you bumbling oaf! You stepped on something!”

Lugnut lifted his pede and briefly noted that he appeared to have stepped on a small drone. “That’s not important! You said this is where Megatron is!”

Hothead Blitzwing switched to Icy. “No, I said this is where the last transmission from Lockdown came from.”

Lugnut made a disgusted sound. “Ugh, do not mention the bot’s designation. He is an embarrassment to the Decepticon cause.”

Blitzwing switched to Hothead and hit Lugnut over the head. “You idiot! He was tracking down the Autobots that deactivated Megatron so we could execute them!”

“No! Megatron is alive! I feel it in my circuitry!”

“Your circuitry’s not worth slag!” Blitzwing switched back to Icy, who simply pinched his nasal ridge. “Look, we picked up the Nemesis’s signal nearby. We might find something of interest there.”

The Nemesis was visible from where they landed, but it wasn’t until they got closer that they realized what type of shape it was in. It was in two pieces, and both pieces looked as if they’d been ripped apart by something. Given the blast from the space bridge, Blitzwing couldn’t really say that was surprising.

Lugnut fell to his knees. “What has become of our leader’s glorious flagship!?!”

Blitzwing switched to Random and cackled. “Somebody doesn’t know how to parallel park!” He switched back to Icy. “Now, let’s see if we can find anything in there that will be useful.”

It was more or less the same as they’d left it besides its rather sorry state of repair. The only really big difference was the storage facility for the protoforms.

“Ugh, as if one Starscream wasn’t bad enough,” muttered Icy

Instead of protoforms, they had a bunch of Starscreams as far as the eye could see. Lugnut cautiously opened up the chassis of one. “Well, at least they don’t have sparks.”

Random Blitzwing was too busy singing a song about clones as Random to hear. “Blitzwing.”

“I think I’m a clone now!”

“Blitzwing.”

“And every-”

“Blitzwing!”

Blitzwing froze for a klik before switching to Icy and straightening. “My apologies.”

“Why would Starscream make copies of himself?” asked Lugnut. “They’re useless without the Allspark to bestow life upon them.”

Blitzwing switched to Random. “Because he loves himself so much that he-” Icy forcibly took control to prevent Random from finishing his sentence. There were just some things he didn’t need to hear. Icy made his way over to a Starscream that was missing one of its servos and optics. “Some of this one’s parts have been removed. Perhaps Starscream injured himself and needed replacements.”

“Could it have been the Autobots?” asked Lugnut.

Icy shrugged. “Hard to say. It’s possible he ran into Autobots and was injured, but he may have been injured in the explosion instead.” He walked over to a nearby table. It had some dried energon and part of a servo on it. He switched to Random. “Naughty, naughty, not cleaning up after himself!”

“That’s the servo he had to replace?” asked Lugnut. “There’s not much left.” It looked like only the upper half was left.

Blitzwing switched back to Icy and picked up the piece of Starscream. “Hm…This injury isn’t from an explosion. It looks like the rest was ripped off, most likely at the joint. I doubt Starscream would give himself this sort of injury for any reason.”

“Agreed,” said Lugnut. “Starscream is far too much of a coward.”

“Well, at least we can track his signal,” said Icy. “Perhaps he has found something significant.”

The lake bed:

Flareup caught a metal ball in her servos.

“You’re not supposed to touch it with your servos!” shouted Wheeljack.

“Oh right.” Flareup dropped it and kicked it towards Bulkhead. Bumblebee intercepted and kicked it back towards her and Prowl’s side of the field.

Bumblebee had gotten bored. Not wanting to upset Ratchet, Bumblebee had looked for something that would distract him without causing trouble for Ratchet. After stumbling across a soccer game on a Spanish channel, Bumblebee had decided to organize a soccer game of his own. He’d recruited everyone for the game except for Ratchet.

Wheeljack had made a metal ball and was acting as the referee. Prowl and Bulkhead were the goalies. Flareup and Bumblebee were kicking the ball around.

Given, none of them were really clear on the rules, but they knew you couldn’t touch the ball with your hands, only your feet.

Bumblebee dodged Flareup’s attempts to block him and kicked the ball towards the goal. Prowl did an impressive somersault kick, sending the ball back to the other side of the ‘field’. Bumblebee groaned while Flareup let out a triumphant shout and went after the ball. “I want Prowl to be my goalie next time,” muttered Bumblebee.

Flareup kicked the ball at Bulkhead…only for it to bounce off his chassis. “Bulkhead’s not exactly fair either,” muttered Flareup. “Can we switch?”

Wheeljack checked his internal chronometer. “Actually, I need to go see about getting supplies,” he said. He was running low on scrap metal again. He’d been putting off a return to the junk yard for Ratchet’s peace of mind, but he was completely out of metal for repairs at this point. “It should be dark now, so I’m gonna go see what I can scavenge. If Ratchet asks, tell him I’ll be back as soon as I can.” He transformed to vehicle mode and drove off.

“So who’s gonna referee now?” asked Bulkhead.

Bumblebee grinned. “Wanna ask Ratchet?”

“I don’t think this is the sort of thing he’d be interested in,” drawled Prowl.

“Do we even need a referee?” asked Flareup. “It’s not like we actually understand the rules.”

Bumblebee paused as he looked around the make-shift field…Which didn’t real have lines…or actual goals…or most of the stuff soccer was supposed to have. “…Okay, you gotta point there.”

“I still want to switch around,” said Flareup. “Prowl and Bulkhead are too good at the goalie position.”

“But being a goalie is boring!” complained Bumblebee.

Up above:

Wheeljack rolled into the junkyard and did a quick survey to make sure there weren’t any humans around as he activated the scrambler device. He transformed and spent a few minutes sorting through the various junk. There was metal trash, glass trash, plastic trash, biodegradable trash, and some stuff Wheeljack didn’t think he wanted to know the identity of. 

Ew…Baby diapers. Wheeljack immediately moved to another location. “I wonder if there’s any iron around here?”

Even higher up above:

“…So I’m not so sure Starscream is the best choice at this point.”

“You dare doubt Megatron’s wisdom?!”

Icy vented. “Not exactly. Starscream was a very good choice when Megatron first made him second in command. However, since then his skills and mentality have…deteriorated.”

“Like you’re one to talk…”

“Hey!” protested Hothead.

“But I have to agree. Starscream’s changed, always talking behind Megatron’s back and questioning his brilliant plans. He acts as if he wants our glorious leader to fail.”

“I wouldn’t think he remembers any of his scientific background if I hadn’t seen the clones back there,” admitted Icy. “Although, the process isn’t too difficult if you have protoforms to use as a base.”

“Yes, but Megatron has not yet seen a need to replace him,” pointed out Lugnut. “If Starscream was irredeemable, Megatron would have removed him from his post by now.”

“Megatron has been focused on nothing but the Allspark for over a thousand vorns,” muttered Icy. He switched to Random. “He needs to pay more attention to his surroundings!”

“Do not insult Megatron!” shouted Lugnut

“Touchy touchy!” He switched back to Icy. “I think we should bring this up to the generals and have them vote on it. At this point, I don’t think Starscream is fit to lead.”

“There will be no need. I’m sure that if we bring this problem to Megatron’s attention, he will be willing to give it consideration.”

Icy rolled his optics at Lugnut’s inability to believe Megatron was gone. Then he saw something that made him screech to a halt. “Wait!”

“What is it?”

Blitzwing pointed downward. “Focus your vision on that spot in particular.”

Lugnut did. It took a klik to figure out what Blitzwing had seen since it was so far away, but he knew what Blitzwing was talking about as soon as he saw it. “An Autobot!” He flew down. “He shall pay for what they did to Megatron!”

Icy switched to Hothead and was right behind Lugnut. “I’ll rip his spark out!”

Down below, Wheeljack paused as a sensation he often referred to as ‘bad days ahead’ ran up his spinal strut. Odd, where’d that come from? He looked around to make sure that a human hadn’t snuck up and seen him. He didn’t see any humans. He ran an infrared scan to be sure. There were some rats, but nothing bigger than that. So why did he still have a feeling of impending doom?

Wheeljack heard the war cry and had just enough time to look up before Blitzwing landed on him and pinned him to the ground. Hothead smirked. “Got him.”

Lugnut landed beside them. “What have you done with our glorious leader?!”

Wheeljack blinked. Well, this was unfortunate. He definitely wasn’t going to be able to get out of this situation on his own. He’d have to go along with it and hope that he got a chance to contact the others at some point. “Uh, he got pushed out of the ship during re-entry. I honestly don’t see how he could’ve survived that.”

“Lies!” shouted Lugnut.

Sumdac Systems:

Hector stared at the screen. Megatron had easily managed to pick up Wheeljack when he entered the city. Then he’d had some camerabots tail him from a distance. Hector had not been surprised when Wheeljack had transformed in a junkyard and started digging through scrap metal. He had been surprised when two bots he didn’t recognize at all landed on top of Wheeljack. _“Friends of yours?”_

**Blitzwing and Lugnut. Lockdown must have been in contact with them at some point and they followed the location of his last transmission when he broke contact with them.**

_“Shall I contact them?”_

**Hm…Only Lugnut.**

_“I’m going to need a much more specific frequency if that’s the case. Any reason why?”_

**There are very few individuals that I can trust, but Lugnut has proven his loyalty several times. It is unlikely he harbors any ill intentions towards me. More importantly, he has no desire to further his rank.**

Junkyard:

“Tell us where Megatron is or I’ll smash your helm in,” threatened Lugnut.

Blitzwing switched to Icy. “Lugnut, we have no proof that Megatron is alive.”

“Plus, I can’t tell you anything if my processor’s smashed,” pointed out Wheeljack. Icy took a moment to hit Wheeljack over the head. “Seriously, do that and I won’t be able think, much less talk.”

**Lugnut.**

Lugnut looked around. “Who was that?”

**It’s me, Megatron.**

“Ah!” Lugnut got down on his knees. “Master…”

Blitzwing and Wheeljack stared at him. “Does he do that often?” asked Wheeljack.

Blitzwing switched to Hothead. “None of your business!”

“I knew you could not have been destroyed by such pathetic Autobots,” continued Lugnut.

“Hey!” protested Wheeljack.

“What is it your command, my master?”

**There was an…incident, and I require some assistance. Ideally, I would use the Allspark, but something is blocking its signal. However, there may be another way.**

“Please tell me he doesn’t always act like this,” whispered Wheeljack.

Blitzwing switched to Random. “Someone has a cru-u-ush!”

Lugnut’s vision suddenly blacked out and an image appeared in his processor.

It was a human (Not that Lugnut knew what a human was.) with dark skin and red hair. **This hybrid was able to create functional sparks. I suspect that she has some sort of connection to the Allspark. I want you to bring her to me at these coordinates.**

Wheeljack was looking at Blitzwing in horror. “Is there something wrong with you?”

Random cackled. “I’ve lost my mind! You wouldn’t happen to have seen it?”

“But where can I find this strange creature?” asked Lugnut, ignoring the odd exchange between Wheeljack and Blitzwing. He didn’t know why Megatron was referring to her as a hybrid, but he decided this was unimportant compared to helping his master.

**She’s in the forest somewhere…That’s the large group of brown and green organic objects bordering the city…She tends to move around so you’ll need to locate her.**

Lugnut bowed. “Understood, my liege.”

Wheeljack tried to surreptitiously activate his com link so he could inform Ratchet that he’d been jumped by a couple of certifiably insane Decepticons…But that plan was tossed out the window when Hothead Blitzwing punched the ground next to his head.

“Come, we must find the hybrid as Megatron commands!” insisted Lugnut.

Blitzwing changed to Icy. “Lugnut, I don’t hear anything. You are experiencing a hallucination.”

“Like you’re one to talk,” snapped Lugnut.

Blitzwing switched to Random. “I’m a different kind of crazy!”

Lugnut decided it wasn’t worth arguing about and grabbed Blitzwing and Wheeljack before flying off. “To the forest!”

“Why are you bringing me?!” shouted Wheeljack.

“And they say I’m the crazy one!” Then Blitzwing head butted Lugnut.

Lugnut returned the favor.

The three fell and crashed into the forest. Wheeljack groaned and reached for his com. Icy Blitzwing slapped his servo away and put him into a lock and hold before climbing out of the crater with him. Somehow, Lugnut had climbed out before them. Blitzwing switched to Hothead. “Are you happy now, you malfunctioning scrapheap?!”

“Not now. We need to find the hybrid.” Lugnut turned to Wheeljack. “How do we find the hybrid?”

Wheeljack stared. “Huh?”

“We’re supposed to be capturing them for execution!” Hothead tried to remind Lugnut.

“I can’t believe I’m saying this,” said Wheeljack, “but I agree with this guy.” He jerked his head towards Blitzwing. “How did you go from attacking me for what happened to Megatron to demanding I help you find some sort of hybrid, which by the way, I have never ever heard of and as such have no idea what you’re talking about.”

This earned him another punch from Blitzwing.

“Then I will find it myself!” declared Lugnut.

Blitzwing immediately turned his attention to his comrade. “Like Pit you will!”

Too late. Lugnut had already run off. Blitzwing and Wheeljack were forced to follow after him with Hothead shouting insults at Lugnut about his ancestry and intelligence the whole time.

“And Strika-”

Lugnut suddenly whirled around, pointing a pincer at Blitzwing’s face. “Do not talk about my beloved like that!”

Wheeljack briefly wondered who Strika was and why Lugnut liked her enough to interrupt Blitzwing’s tirade. He wasn’t sure he wanted to know.

Blitzwing switched to Random. “Aw, did I hit a soft spot?”

“Could you let me get out from between you two if you’re going to fight?” asked Wheeljack. He felt like he’d get squished if one of them decided to attack the other.

Before either could reply to what Wheeljack felt was a relevant question, a loud roar swept through the forest, making them pause/freeze.

Blitzwing switched to Icy. “What was that?” he demanded.

Wheeljack shrugged. “I’ve never heard that sound before.” Although he had a pretty good idea what it was. The Dinobots were living out here, and that sounded like the sounds dinosaurs made in those documentaries he’d been watching over the past few solar cycles.

**It is possible that is a Dinobot. The target spends the majority of her time in the vicinity of them.**

“Understood.” Lugnut started heading in the direction the roar came from.

Wheeljack’s optics widened. “You don’t go towards the roaring monster! Everyone knows that!”

Blitzwing switched to Random. “We’re rebels!” Then he laughed and pushed Wheeljack forward.

Wheeljack groaned. Just his luck that he got abducted again! By a couple of nutcases no less. Ratchet was never gonna let him hear the end of this.

After walking for a while, Icy Blitzwing suddenly stopped. “We’ve been through here before.”

Lugnut turned towards Blitzwing. “We have?”

Blitzwing pointed down at some recently destroyed trees. “You don’t recognize your own servowork?”

Lugnut looked down and blinked a couple of times as if he didn’t. “Oh, then…” He looked around before pointing in a seemingly random direction. “We’ll go that way.”

Blitzwing switched to Hothead. “Do you have a slagging clue where you’re going?”

“I’m searching for the Dinobots.”

Wheeljack nearly crashed when he heard that. How had someone like Lugnut found out about the Dinobots? Blitzwing switched to Icy. “You mean Autobots.”

“No, Dinobots.”

Icy frowned. “What’s a Dinobot?”

Lugnut paused. “I don’t know.”

“And yet you’re looking for them,” deadpanned Blitzwing. “Why?”

“Megatron demands it!”

“I thought he demanded you find some sort of hybrid,” Blitzwing reminded Lugnut.

“He says the hybrid is with the Dinobots,” explained Lugnut.

“You’re not making any sense.” Blitzwing switched to Random. “That’s my job!”

“It will all fall into place! I’m sure of it!” And Lugnut ran off before Blitzwing could try to argue.

Blitzwing switched to Hothead and ran after Lugnut while dragging a yelping Wheeljack behind him. “Get back here you slagging offspring of an outdated motherboard!”

The three proceeded to become completely lost for another hour or so. Hothead eventually stopped yelling insults at Lugnut and instead switched to Icy to try and talk him out of the seemingly pointless pursuit. Occasionally Random or Hothead popped up to make some sort of comment, but Lugnut continued to ignore all of them.

Then Lugnut suddenly stopped. Icy Blitzwing let out a relieved sigh. “Finally. Now can we please…” He trailed off when he got a good look at the very large footprints in the ground. “What’s this?”

“Dinobots?” suggested Lugnut.

Blitzwing gave Lugnut a look before turning to Wheeljack. Wheeljack shrugged. “I’m an engineer. I don’t know anything about identifying local species…or tracking.”

Lugnut decided to follow the footprints. Blitzwing took another moment to examine the footprints. He had to admit that he was curious about what had made these footprints. Shrugging, he decided to follow after Lugnut. “Try to be quiet. Considering the size of these prints, it’s likely that the creature that made them is quite large. There’s a chance it will be dangerous to engage it directly.”

Lugnut listened to Blitzwing’s advice. He couldn’t move silently due to his size, but he stopped knocking trees over at least.

Within a few minutes, the Dinobots came into view through the trees. They were all curled up in their alt form and in recharge. They weren’t the only ones there. Wheeljack nearly glitched when he saw the giant wolf with wings. He’d never actually seen it, but it matched the descriptions Prowl and Flareup had given. And the wolf wasn’t the only surprise. Standing at attention was a human with a lot of red hair. It took a moment for Wheeljack to realize it was probably the human he’d run into on his first scavenging run.

In contrast to the Dinobots, Silverbolt and Sari were wide awake and looking in the direction of the three bots. Silverbolt was growling, and Sari was poised to attack if whatever came out of the shadows was hostile.

That didn’t stop Lugnut from moving forwards. Silverbolt and Sari immediately started growling at him, which made the Dinobots start to stir. Lugnut was not impressed and pointed at Sari. “You will come with me so that I may present you to Lord Megatron!”

Sari raised an eyebrow. “You’re kidding.”

“Puppy!” Random Blitzwing abandoned Wheeljack and ran over and tried to pet Silverbolt. “Nice puppy!”

Silverbolt promptly bit Blitzwing’s servo.

Blitzwing switched to Hothead. “You slagger!” This was aimed partly at Silverbolt and partly at Random.

It also fully woke up the Dinobots. Angry at being so rudely woken up, they joined in the growling.

Wheeljack took advantage of this to finally activate his com link. _“Ratchet! Decepticons! Forest! Crazy! Dinobots! This has been a bad night cycle!”_

_“Decepticons?! Where are you?!”_

_“The forest! With the Dinobots! The Decepticons dragged me here, and I have no idea why except that they’re completely insane!”_

Meanwhile, Sari was glaring at Lugnut. “Look, I don’t care who you are or what this has to do with Megatron. I’m not going with you.”

“Infidel!” Lugnut went to grab Sari, but Grimlock jumped on him. He threw off Grimlock, only to get rammed by Slag.

Seeing that a fight was inevitable. Hothead squeezed Silverbolt’s neck, causing him to let go with a yelp. Hothead aimed one of his shoulder cannons at the winged wolf, fully prepared to finish him off, but Snarl, now in robot mode, threw his shield at him. Blitzwing managed turn so that it didn’t do as much damage as it could have (It was very sharp.), but it still knocked him away from Silverbolt. That was when Sludge, also in robot mode, put him in a bear hug.

Lugnut had grabbed Slag by the horns and thrown him to the side. Swoop flew down and landed on Lugnut, pecking at his head. Lugnut made an annoyed sound and threw him off. He heard a transforming sound and turned just in time to catch Grimlock’s flaming sword. “You not take Mommy!”

Lugnut threw himself forward, knocking Grimlock off balance and to the ground. He rolled off the Dinobot and stood up, transforming his arm to its ‘Punch Of Kill Everything’ mode and slamming it into the ground.

The resulting explosion caused a crater the size of a city block.

Lugnut looked around for Blitzwing. After a moment, Hothead Blitzwing pulled himself out of the ground and stalked over, a frown on his face. “I’ve told you once, I’ve told you a million times…” He punched Lugnut in the head. “Give me some warning before you use the punch!”

“What happened to the hybrid?” asked Lugnut, looking for Sari. “I must find her so I can present her to Megatron!”

Blitzwing switched to Icy. “Considering what organics are like…You probably squished it.”

Lugnut blinked. Then he fell to his knees. “Master! Forgive me!”

And that was when Sari catapulted herself onto Blitzwing’s face from seemingly nowhere. “What the-” Sari buried her spear into his left optic. She jumped off as Blitzwing shrieked and immediately switched to Hothead. “You miserable little insect!” He swiped for Sari, who only barely managed to dodge.

Lugnut got to his pedes. “Don’t-”

Silverbolt suddenly shot out of the ground and into the back of Blitzwing’s knees. Blitzwing caught himself and grabbed one of Silverbolt’s wings, grunting as the wing unexpectedly cut into his servo. Silverbolt yelped before biting the servo. Blitzwing pulled back his free servo to punch Silverbolt.

*CLANG!*

But got hit by a flaming mace. “Let go Grandpa!” shouted Swoop.

The Dinobots had finally dug themselves out and threw themselves at the Decepticons with all the fury of giant, pissed off, pyromaniac robots.

A few moments later, Wheeljack dug himself out as well and stared at the scene for a moment before activating his com. _“Still alive!”_

 _“What was that explosion?”_ demanded Ratchet.

_“Some sort of explosive mod. It left a huge crater. I’m surprised no one got deactivated. Now the Dinobots and a human and a very large wolf with wings are fighting the Decepticons. Not doing that badly either now that I think about it.”_

_“Get out of there while they’re distracted!”_ demanded Ratchet.

Wheeljack mentally frowned as he watched the fight. _“But there’s something off. One of them keeps calling the human ‘hybrid’ and seems to be avoiding hurting her for some reason.”_

_“That’s not important!”_

_“Yes it is!”_ Wheeljack cut the com link and ignored the subsequent pings. He grabbed for the nearest Dinobot. “Hey!”

Slag snarled at Wheeljack and promptly rejoined the fight. Wheeljack didn’t try to stop him. He tried for the next one to land near him, Sludge. “Excuse me!”

Sludge didn’t snarl at him, but she didn’t pay him any attention either.

The next to land near him was Silverbolt. Wheeljack didn’t try talking to him since he was scary and didn’t seem capable of communication.

Sari was the next to land next to Wheeljack. He quickly grabbed her. “Hold on for a klik!”

Sari blinked and frowned. “What do you want?”

“Look. I’ve had a bad night cycle. I’ve been tackled by Decepticons, dragged all over the place, dropped from the sky, and blown up, all while listening to their crazy ramblings. I want to do something about them just as much as you, and I think I’ve got an idea to at least incapacitate them.”

Sari crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow skeptically. “Yeah? What is it?”

Wheeljack hurriedly whispered his plan to her before setting her down. He ran off to gather his supplies, while Sari ran around delivering the plan to the others.

Once Wheeljack had found the materials he’d needed and put the device together, he ran back over to the crater. He took a moment to marvel at the fact that the group was managing to hold their own against two Decepticon Elite. Then he threw a rather large rock down into the crater. “Now!”

Sari ran across Lugnut’s field of vision. He dove for her. Sari ran between Blitzwing’s stabilizing servos just as Grimlock, Sludge, and Silverbolt tackled Blitzwing. The two collided with each other while everyone else backed away.

Then the rock Wheeljack tossed exploded. That shrapnel went flying, but the Decepticons and Dinobots had strong enough armor that it didn’t hurt them. Sari and Silverbolt took shelter behind the Dinobots.

That wasn’t what Wheeljack had been aiming for. What he’d been aiming for was to get the two stuck in one place, and the sticky, pasty substance coating Lugnut and Blitzwing was doing just that. Blitzwing switched to Random. “Gotta stick together!”

“Do you think this can hold us?!” shouted Lugnut, already starting to pull the adhesive apart.

“Not really.” Then Wheeljack tossed a large bomb at the two.

That was when Blitzwing and Lugnut realized the extended Dinobot family had scrambled out of the crater and behind the surviving trees.

The resulting explosion knocked Wheeljack back, caught several trees on fire, and sent the two Decepticons flying. No one was really paying attention to the trajectory of the two.

“Me Grimlock like!”

“Pretty fire!”

“Oooh!”

“Okay, fire breaker time!” commanded Sari.

This apparently consisted of tossing the flaming trees in the crater, which was coated in soot and a disturbingly oily substance, and digging trenches to make sure the fire wouldn’t spread.

Wheeljack, also blackened by soot, just continued to lay there, staring at the sky. Swoop briefly stopped his fire breaking job and nudged the engineer with his foot. “You crazy bot dead?”

“No…”

“Okay.” Then Swoop went back to his job.

Shortly afterwards, the rest of the Autobots arrived. For a moment, they just stared at the destruction.

“Hi Daddy!” greeted Sludge

If Prowl could blush, he would.

While Bumblebee snickered at Prowl’s nickname, Ratchet stalked over to Wheeljack. “What the Pit happened here?”

“Bad luck…and a couple explosions. I only caused one…I feel kind of numb, but in a good way. Does that make sense?”

“…A little…”

The kids were more interested in the Dino clan. “Is that the wolf that saved Prowl?” asked Bulkhead as he stared at Silverbolt.

Flareup nodded, though her attention was on the human fearlessly scampering among the pedes of the Dinobots. “Is that the human that saved Bumblebee’s aft?”

“Yeah,” said Bumblebee. He watched the scene with confusion evident on his face. “How do they know each other?”

Ratchet paused in looking over Wheeljack as the same thing occurred to him. Ratchet gave Prowl a look. “Did you know all these individuals know each other?”

Prowl though for a second. Well, Sari and Silverbolt had been exposed. No point in keeping it a secret at this point. “The Dinobots somehow adopted Sari, the human, as their carrier. Silverbolt, the wolf, is Sari’s adopted sire, so he is the Dinobot’s grandsire.”

Ratchet twitched. “And you didn’t mention this before because?”

“They’re not Cybertronian, and they’ve willingly isolated themselves from the rest of society,” explained Prowl. “They’re not dangerous as long as you leave them alone, and they’re fiercely protective of each other. If I wasn’t bringing them energon, they wouldn’t put up with my presence.” Ratchet continued to give him a look. Prowl sighed. “This is their world, not ours, we have no right to interfere with their way of life.”

“Exactly, we’re not supposed to interfere with the native life forms,” said Ratchet, turning Prowl’s words against him. “What do you think the Dinobots living with them is?”

“Would you take a youngling away from its loving creators?” countered Prowl.

Ratchet didn’t answer. He just stared at the Dino clan with a frown on his face before turning his attention back to Wheeljack. 

By this time, Sari and Silverbolt decided that they’d successfully prevented the fire spreading and were now working on calming the Dinobots down. Curious, Flareup took a few steps closer. The Dinobots immediately swiveled in her direction and started growling. Flareup held up her servos in a pacifying gesture. “Wow, you guys are really something.”

Sari gave Flareup a look that clearly said ‘back off’ and turned to Silverbolt. “So now what? It’s not gonna be safe to stay here.” Silverbolt nodded and glanced around for a moment before his gaze fell on the various Autobots.

Silverbolt limped right over to Ratchet and Wheeljack and started trying to get Wheeljack to his stabilizing servos. Ratchet swatted him away. “Stop that. I’m trying to realign Wheeljack’s stabilizing relays, and you’re not helping.”

Silverbolt whined and turned his attention to Prowl, gingerly taking one of his servos in his mouth and dragging him towards the rest of the Dino clan. Prowl couldn’t help but be confused by this strange behavior. “Is something wrong?”

A sound that sounded somewhere between a groan and a scream came out of the forest surrounding them. It was so bizarre and out of the ordinary, that it even gave Ratchet pause.

Prowl looked down as he felt Silverbolt tense up. Silverbolt was staring off into the shadows with wide, scared eyes. He looked like he wanted to run. That was startling. Silverbolt had jumped into a fight with two Decepticon Elite. What could possibly scare him to that extent?

Sari also looked like she wanted to get out of there as quickly as possible. “We need to go. Now.”

“Why? What was that?” asked Flareup.

“The forest.”

“You mean wind?”

“No.”

Wheeljack managed to pull himself to his feet at that point. “Okay, feeling better now.” Silverbolt abandoned Prowl to start pulling Wheeljack instead. “Wow, you really want us out of here, don’t you?” He followed Silverbolt with no resistance at all. “Might as well see what you wanna show me.”

Of course, Sari and the Dinobots followed after Silverbolt. Prowl followed the Dinobots. Ratchet followed Wheeljack. Bumblebee followed Ratchet. Bulkhead and Flareup exchanged looks before shrugging and following as well.

Silverbolt didn’t stop pulling Wheeljack along until they were out of the forest and on the beach. At that point, Silverbolt let go of Wheeljack and flopped onto the ground. Wheeljack immediately started scratching him behind the ears. “You’re actually a really friendly guy, aren’t ya? You’re totally on my friend list!” Silverbolt huffed but leaned into Wheeljack’s touch.

Bumblebee ran over and started petting him too. “Can he understand us?”

Wheeljack shrugged. “Beats me, but it’s not gonna stop me from thanking him!”

“Okay, then thanks for saving Wheeljack giant flying wolf!” said Bumblebee. Silverbolt just grunted.

Ratchet rolled his eyes at the two’s antics before turning his attention to the Dinobots. They sustained some injuries while fighting the Decepticons. Odd as the situation was, he couldn’t just leave them like that. However, as soon as he started for them, Sari intercepted and glared at him. “Stay away from my kids!”

Ratchet returned the glare. “Do you want the Dinobots to stay like that? They’re not like organics. Their self-repair functions are limited, and they need to have damage manually repaired if they don’t want to walk around like that for the next few stellar cycles.”

“Sari, Ratchet is a very experienced medic,” said Prowl. “He would never harm a youngling for any reason, and they do need treatment. Please, trust us.”

Sari stared at the two for several moments before glancing at Silverbolt. He certainly didn’t look like he was worried about anything. “I don’t trust you, but I don’t want the Dinobots to stay hurt,” admitted Sari. “So you’ll fix the Dinobots, but I’m gonna be watching you the whole time.”

Ratchet shrugged. “Fair enough. I don’t really trust you either.”

Elsewhere:

Lugnut and Blizwing were half submerged off another beach. The blast had been enough to detach several limbs, so they were stuck. That wasn’t what was upsetting Lugnut though.

“Master, I’ve failed you!”

“AHAHAHA! Can somebody give me a hand? Or a foot? Maybe a pelvis?” Blitzwing switched to Hothead. “You glitch head! You were so focused on the insect that you didn’t even pay attention to what the others were doing!”

“I was doing as Megatron commanded you fool!”

“You got us blown to scrap, and I’m the fool?!”

A harrier jet happened to fly by just then. It stopped above them and transformed into a smirking Starscream. “Well, well, well, I wondered what all the commotion was about.”

Blitzwing switched to Icy. “Were you here the whole time?”

“Yeah, why?”

Icy made an annoyed sound. “You couldn’t have assisted us?”

“I was busy,” lied Starscream. He’d been busy flying around, looking for any unusual signals while messing with human piloted jets that detected and chased him.

Blitzwing figured Starscream was lying. Nothing unusual about that. Icy decided to move onto something that had been bothering him. “We found the Nemesis. Why did you make so many clones of yourself?”

Starscream shrugged. “It gets boring in space.”

“Megatron was going to use those to rebuild our people!” shouted Lugnut.

Starscream waved off Lugnut’s concerns. “We can just recycle them later if it bothers you that much.” He grinned. “Now, it seems like you are in dire need of some assistance, but first you have to offer me something in return: Absolute loyalty.”

Sumdac systems:

_“Well, that didn’t work.”_

Megatron was very angry, but Hector figured it was at the other two rather than him, which made him somewhat safe.

**It seems I will have to have a…talk with Blitzwing and Lugnut when I next see them.**

_“Looks like we’re going to go back to the original plan. Soundwave could probably find him again.”_

**Not yet. I may have underestimated what these bots are capable of. Perhaps it would be prudent to call for reinforcements.**

Besides, he was still going to need material for his body, even if Sari Sumdac was brought to him.

Later:

“Almost done…” muttered Ratchet as he welded a crack in Sludge’s arm. It was the last Dinobot injury he needed to treat, and Ratchet was perfectly willing to admit that he was glad this job was over. It turned out the Dinobots as a whole made terrible patients.

Swoop hadn’t been much of a problem. He’d been curious about what Ratchet was doing and poked at the repairs, but Ratchet had managed to get him stop. The other Dinobots were considerably less cooperative.

Grimlock snapped at Ratchet whenever one of the repairs so much as stung. Eventually, the others just held him down while Ratchet made the repairs.

They had to do this with Slag too.

Snarl just gave Ratchet a stare that threatened disembowelment the whole time.

Sludge didn’t make any threatening moves. That was good. What was bad was that she was flinching and whimpering the entire time. Her ‘parents’ tried to help, Prowl by holding Sludge’s servo and Sari by whispering calming sounds to her.

Ratchet let out a sigh of relief as he finished up. “There, done. Finally.”

“See? That wasn’t so bad,” said Sari.

Sludge stared at her arm, as if she was shocked that it was now back to normal. Her optics wandered to the one figure that hadn’t been helping during the repairing process. “Grandpa be fixed?”

Everyone’s optics went to Silverbolt. He’d been lying down the whole time, licking a large gash on his left hind leg.

“I can’t fix organics like I do us,” said Ratchet. “I can’t solder any tears or replace parts. He has to heal on his own.”

“Some stitches might help,” interjected Sari. “Only it would have to be sterilized, and I don’t see why you would have something like that.”

“I got an idea!” said Wheeljack.

And that was how Ratchet found himself stapling the wounds of a giant mutant wolf/bird hybrid (Because what else could it be?) with a device Wheeljack used when he needed to temporarily hold something in place. “For the record, this is probably the strangest thing I’ve ever done.” At least Silverbolt was behaving. He was tensed up, but he wasn’t try to bite off Ratchet’s servos. In that way, he was better behaved than his grandkids.

“Done.” Silverbolt stood up, favoring his injured leg. He licked Ratchet.

Ratchet decided that was Silverbolt’s way of saying thanks.

“Does this make you part of our group?” asked Flareup.

“We’re neutrals,” said Sari. “The Decepticons attacked us first. We were just defending ourselves.” Silverbolt promptly gave Sari a disapproving look and growled. He and Sari had a brief stare off before Sari winced and threw her hands up. “Okay, if we see the Decepticons attacking someone, we’ll help!”

Ratchet had to raise an optic ridge at the odd interaction before shrugging it off. Much as he hated to admit it, they could use help if more Decepticons showed up, and the Dinobots seemed well-suited to the task of fighting with their robot modes and weapons.

Sludge yawned. “Go home now?”

Sari shook her head. “It’s not safe. That explosion’s gonna attract all sorts of attention.” She turned towards the lake and pointed towards an island. “We’ll have to hide out on that island until it’s safe for us to come back.”

“Looks like we’re gonna be neighbors from now on,” commented Wheeljack. “We’ll have to set up a playdate between the kids.”

Sari blinked. “Huh?”

“That’d be pretty nice,” added Bumblebee. “It gets boring down there.”

“We play hide-and-seek!” added Swoop.

“Sure,” said Bulkhead. “And we’ll show you how to lob.”

Sari groaned. “Fine. We’re neighbors.” What a weird turn of events. She turned towards the island. “Let’s just hurry up and get over there so we can go back to sleep.”

Silverbolt immediately flew off towards the island. Swoop transformed and went after him. Sari started swimming. The rest of the Dinobots would have to walk along the bottom of the lake with the Autobots. As the two groups separated, the kids and Prowl waved good-bye to the Dinobots. The Dinobots copied them before continuing on.

When the Dinobots climbed out onto the shore of the island, Silverbolt and Swoop were already asleep. Sari was ringing out her long hair. The remaining Dinobots transformed to their beast modes and curled up with the rest of their family.

Sari walked over and sat down against Silverbolt’s chest, staring out towards Detroit as the sun started to rise.

She held up her hands and stared at them. She transformed them into their mechanical form and stared at them as she turned them over. She transformed them back to their organic form and let them drop to the ground with a sigh. She curled up into Silverbolt’s fur. “Why do these sorts of things keep happening to me? I didn’t ask for any of this…”

It was a long time before Sari was able to get any sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _And now Butterflies presents: Questions and Answers with Vector Prime._
> 
> “Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed the chapter,” said Vector. “The author’s mucus has turned pink for some reason, but that’s due to a Wheeljack-style chemistry accident.”
> 
> “At least my sore throat’s finally gone.”
> 
> “Now, KHGiggle does not do accents,” continued Vector. “This is done for two reasons. The first is that she has trouble spotting them, especially when there’s a metallic tone to it, like with us Transformers. She still hasn’t realized I have an English accent.”
> 
> “You have an English accent?”
> 
> Vector rolled his optics. “See what I mean? She can’t hear the accent Shockwave has either. The other reason is that reading accents gives her a headache.”
> 
> “No it doesn’t, it makes me hear the characters talk slow and monotone, and they just sound wrong. I can’t be the only one with that issue!”
> 
> “In other words, KHGiggle respects the effort authors put into writing accents, but she feels it wouldn’t work so well with her.”
> 
> “Does anyone else have an accent that I need to know about?” asked KHGiggle.
> 
> “Ironhide has a southern accent.”
> 
> “Well, yeah, everyone knows that.”
> 
> “Flareup also has a southern accent.”
> 
> “She does? I never noticed.” KHGiggle paused. “Although she only had like one line in the Animated cartoon. It’d be pretty easy to miss.”
> 
> “Wheeljack never even spoke in the Animated cartoon, so feel free to imagine him with any accent you like,” finished Vector. He turned to look to the side. “Is there anything else to address?”
> 
> “Only if you want to talk about how the Dinobots weren’t able to beat the Decepticons.”
> 
> “No thank you.” Vector turned his attention back to the audience. “That is all for this chapter. We hope to see you again at a later date.”
> 
> _This has been Questions and Answers with Vector Prime._


	10. Attack of the Space Barnacles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A camping trip takes a turn for the horrifying.

“Why haven’t you found the man who hacked into Dino Drive’s computer system?” demanded Powell.

Hector had expected this to happen eventually. Given, he had found the culprit, but he couldn’t exactly turn in a decapitated robot head and say that was the responsible party.

Besides, Megatron would probably play dead. Then kill him once everyone decided he was crazy.

“Whoever did this is incredibly skilled,” said Hector. It was true. Hector didn’t know how Megatron compared to his own kind, but compared to humans he was better than any programmer Hector had ever met. “We may require additional help. I just can’t seem to find a trace of any sort of hacking, no matter where I look.”

Powell glowered at Hector. “And you waited until now to bring this to my attention?”

“With all due respect, sir, it takes a very long time to look over all the systems and programming in the company, especially when I have to hack into personal files.”

Powell gave Hector a considering look. Hector was pleased that he didn’t have the urge to fidget. Seems being forced into Megatron’s servitude was good for something. “I want results. Soon. Or there will be consequences.”

That meant Hector was going to be fired if he didn’t find something soon. That was bad for more than one reason. He suspected that if Megatron felt he had no use for him, he would be killed in some fashion. “Of course sir. I’m sure I’ll find something soon.”

_“You getting all this?”_

**It is of no consequence to me.**

Hector had to keep from groaning. He was going to die, wasn’t he?

Elsewhere:

“Ravage: Cease mauling of furniture,” commanded Soundwave.

Ravage looked up from where he was chewing and clawing on a couch cushion. He growled for a second before standing up and walking over to the Soundwave and Nancy. Nancy giggled and scratched Ravage behind his audio receptors.

“Wanna see if we can find a nature documentary?” asked Nancy. “We can watch more cats hunt antelopes and stuff.”

Today, they were working in the living room of the Witwicky house. As it turned out, Nancy’s parents spent a lot of time working, and Daniel, Nancy’s older brother, usually spent his spare time hanging out with friends away from the house.

It was a relief for Soundwave. Maneuvering around was much easier this way.

Soundwave looked over his latest creation. Unlike Ravage, this one was meant to be a bird. He thought it would be a good idea to have at least one unit that could fly. All the hydraulics were in place, the skeleton was strong, the various systems for transmitting energy and neural transmissions were conducting as they should, the fuel tank was sturdy, the processor was functional and was responding well, and all that was left was to weld the outer armor on and start him up.

“Can I name him?” asked Nancy. “You got to name Ravage.”

“Designation: Inconsequential.”

Nancy frowned. “It is not! Names are one of the most important things about a person!”

Soundwave rolled his optics. “Fine.”

Nancy grinned. “I wanna call him Laserbeak!”

Laserbeak it was. Soundwave needed to call the bird something, after all.

The lake:

Ratchet stretched. It had been a relatively slow week. Along with being done under the darkness of night, their scavenging was now being done entirely in vehicle mode. It made things difficult, but at least it made them less likely to be spotted. The young bots seemed to be on their best behavior as well. Ratchet hadn’t had to straighten them out once in the past week. He’d had to bang out a few dents when they decided to visit the Dinobots and things got carried away, but Ratchet was actually starting to get used to that. At least he didn’t have to reattach limbs.

Ratchet’s good mood died as he left the medical lab. He was simply planning to go to the rec room and grab some energon. However, the sight that greeted his optics was so unexpected that his plans were derailed.

Prowl was standing in the hallway. That wasn’t weird. Prowl was still on his punishment detail. He was standing with his servo raised, cleaning cloth against the wall. The bucket of solvent was next to him.

The cloth Prowl was holding was dry and streaks of dried solvent ran down the wall into a half-dried puddle on the floor.

Ratchet raised an optic ridge. “Prowl?” Prowl didn’t make any indication that he’d heard him. “Prowl?” Still nothing. Ratchet hurried over. “Prowl!” Prowl just stood there. Now starting to panic, Ratchet lashed out and hit Prowl over the head.

Prowl’s head was knocked to the side. Prowl would have been thrown to the ground if he hadn’t managed to catch himself. Prowl rubbed his helm and gave Ratchet a look. “Was that really necessary?”

“Did you hear me?” asked Ratchet.

Prowl gave Ratchet an incredulous look. “What?”

“Did you hear me?!”

Prowl stared at Ratchet and shook his head. “No…”

“Not even when I was yelling in your audials?”

Prowl blinked behind his visor. Ratchet had been yelling? Then he realized that the cloth he was holding was dry. He stared at it incredulously. Hadn’t it been completely soaked a moment ago?

Ratchet took this action as a confirmation and grabbed Prowl. “Med bay. Now.”

Prowl didn’t try to fight it.

Ratchet sat Prowl down on the medical berth and hooked a line into his processor. It would sort through his programming while Ratchet did a quick scan to see if Prowl had any processor damage. “It was like you weren’t aware of anything. I’d say you were in stasis except you can’t do that while upright.” He shined a penlight into Prowl’s optics. “Has this happened before?”

“No.” Prowl paused. “Wait. It might have.”

“Might have?”

“A few solar cycles ago Flareup caught me by surprise. She complained that I didn’t hear her say my name.”

“There’s definitely something wrong here,” finished Ratchet. “A healthy processor should respond when someone is talking to you. It might not always be aware of what’s going on, maybe even to the point that you space out, but not to the extent you’re not even aware that you’ve stopped working or someone’s calling you.” He tilted Prowl’s head around, making sure that the lines and wires were all connected. They appeared fine at first glance. “Anything else you can tell me?”

Prowl frowned. “It’s hard to say. I only became aware of it just now.” He thought, trying to remember other times when this might have happened and what it was like when it happened. “Wait. I just realized…This only happens when I’m on the ship.”

Ratchet raised a skeptical optic ridge. “Really?”

“Yes.”

Ratchet narrowed his optics. “This isn’t some sort of elaborate hoax to get me to lift your punishment detail, is it?”

“Do I seem like the kind of bot that would pull that kind of stunt?” deadpanned Prowl.

“Point taken.” Was there something on the ship that was causing Prowl to react like this? That couldn’t be it though. If there was something like that onboard, it would affect all of them, not just Prowl. “Maybe it’s a glitch.”

“But I’ve never suffered from this problem before,” said Prowl.

“Yes, well, some glitches bots have when they are brought online, and some glitches come later in life due to injuries or upgrades made to a bot.” Ratchet paused. “That could be it!”

“Hm?”

“It could be a problem with your spinal strut and the associated structures that I had to replace,” explained Ratchet. “Bad connections between parts can cause signals to interfere with each other so that the data they bring to the processor is corrupted. Since the data can’t be interpreted, an error occurs, and you glitch.”

“But I wasn’t moving,” said Prowl.

“That doesn’t mean that’s not the problem,” argued Ratchet. He plugged a few wires into Prowl’s back. “I’ll test the connections. If they’ve got something to do with this, I should be able to find something and fix it.”

Several megacycles later, Ratchet had run every test that he could think of, but he couldn’t find anything. The tests had come back negative, which meant that Prowl’s programming was working fine and none of his signals were becoming corrupted. All of Prowl’s hardware was functioning normally too. There was no reason for such a severe reaction to take place.

Ratchet was at a loss for what could be causing it, and then he realized there was one more option, and that option would make a lot of sense considering some of the things they’d gone through recently. “It’s possible that it’s psychological.”

Prowl frowned. “You mean like post-traumatic stress?”

Ratchet nodded. He had plenty of experience with such issues and was aware of the effects they could have on a bot. “It could be any number of conditions.” Ratchet made a mental list of what sort of conditions could cause episodes where Prowl wasn’t aware of anything. “I’m not a psychologist though. Even if I try to psychoanalyze you, I can’t be sure the diagnosis I make is correct.”

Prowl thought for a moment. “Might I make a suggestion?”

“What?”

“Like I said, this only happens on the Orion. Maybe if I went outside…”

Ratchet gave Prowl a look. Since being ousted as the Dinobots’ unofficial ‘Daddy’, Prowl had only been allowed outside when there was some sort of emergency, like a Decepticon attack.

Then again, Prowl hadn’t had an attack like this before he’d been put on punishment detail.

Ratchet groaned. “Look, can you think of anything particularly traumatizing that might have caused this? I know that we’ve been through a lot, but is there anything in particular that really bothered you?”

Prowl gave Ratchet a scathing look. “I was impaled by Megatron, had all my higher functions turned off for 58 stellar cycles, had most of my spinal strut and associated neural pathways replaced, had to go through rehabilitation to regain my ability to walk, was attacked by a Decepticon, and a group of rambunctious sparklings in adult frames are somehow convinced I’m their sire.”

Ratchet went through all that. Getting impaled by Megatron was definitely something that would traumatize anybot. Pit, Ratchet had gone through less and been left traumatized. “And how do you feel about getting impaled?”

“Annoyed.”

“Annoyed?” Ratchet stared at Prowl in disbelief. “You could’ve deactivated!”

Prowl shrugged. “But I wasn’t. Every cycle could be my last. It’s impossible for me to know for sure when that will be. I can think of worse ways to go.”

Ratchet stared some more. He didn’t think it was as simple as that, but Prowl was not a bot who talked freely.

“The time without higher functions was rather disturbing on the other hand,” continued Prowl.

Ratchet blinked. “What?”

“When you had to shut down almost everything before you put me in the stasis pod,” explained Prowl. “It was…It wasn’t really anything. I was aware, but there was nothing, no input, no memories, no thoughts, just…void.”

Ratchet’s optics bugged out. “You mean you were aware during that time?!”

“Well, if you can call being and feeling nothing aware…” Really, Prowl wasn’t sure what to call that. “Truth be told, after coming back to myself and realizing how easy it was to lose everything…” Prowl shuddered. “Well, I’d rather not go through it ever again.”

Ratchet’s processor was whirring. It hadn’t occurred to Ratchet that turning off Prowl’s higher functions for so long could be responsible for Prowl’s glitch. He’d run a full diagnosis on Prowl once he’d been fully conscious to make sure being shut off for so long hadn’t caused any damages since sometimes mechs didn’t return to full functionality after being in such a state for so long. Prowl had seemed fine at the time…

Ratchet opened Prowl’s chassis. Prowl raised an eyebrow as Ratchet started running a scan on it. Said scan indicated that the spark chamber was functioning perfectly normally. What little programming it needed was normal too. Ratchet cracked open Prowl’s spark chamber. The spark readings were the same as last time.

It didn’t seem to be a problem with his spark. Ratchet quickly closed him back up. Looked like the cause was still psychological, but he was starting to suspect that it had something to do with the extreme stasis he’d forced on Prowl.

Eventually, Ratchet had to cede the point. “I have no idea what’s causing this.” Which meant he couldn’t even begin to try and prevent a repeat of this. “Maybe if I could observe your neural signals when this happened, I’d be able to find something, but I don’t have any idea how to predict when this will happen again.”

“If it happens again,” pointed out Prowl.

Ratchet gave Prowl a look. “If there’s one thing I’ve learned as a medic, things like this always repeat until you fix the problem.”

Prowl sighed. “Well, I doubt you’re going to learn any additional information at this point. May I leave?”

“No.”

Prowl’s optics widened. “But-”

“No buts. I’m keeping you for observation.”

“I was supposed to go camping on Dinobot Island,” argued Prowl. After a couple of ‘play dates’, as Wheeljack had dubbed them, the younglings and Dinobots were getting along to the point that they decided to have a sleepover on the island. It had taken quite a bit of arguing to convince Ratchet to let them do this, and it had taken even more for Prowl to be included in the outing. Prowl did not want to miss out on his first chance to go outside and simply enjoy himself in weeks.

Ratchet didn’t care. “You’re gonna have to do that later because I’m not letting you out of here until I figure out what’s going on in your processor.”

Prowl groaned.

Later:

“…And that’s why Prowl couldn’t come with us,” finished Bumblebee.

Sari frowned. “I don’t remember anything like that happening when he was with us. He gonna be okay?”

Bumblebee nodded. “Of course! Ratchet’s the best medic in the universe.”

“So…What do you do when you camp?” asked Flareup.

“I dunno,” said Bulkhead. He’d started to play with the Dinobots as soon as he saw them. “The video clip I saw had a bunch of humans sleeping in tents and sitting around a fire.”

“We don’t have any tents,” pointed out Flareup. “And why would we need a fire?”

“For heat and cooking,” explained Sari. “I use them all the time.”

“Oh…” Flareup was pretty sure the only one who’d need a fire was Sari then. Actually, it had been colder lately, and the ground was covered in white stuff called ‘snow’ that was apparently a frozen type of precipitation. Someone had tried to make some sort of sculpture using the stuff, but Flareup had no idea what it was supposed to be.

Flareup’s thoughts were cut off when she felt something pushing against her servo. She looked down and saw Silverbolt butting her servo. Flareup scratched Silverbolt behind the ears. He had sort of helped saved Wheeljack and was still limping slightly. She figured he deserved some good dog scratches…even if he was technically not a dog. “What are we supposed to do then? None of us really need a fire or tent.”

A large tree landed in front of them. Grimlock ran up, grabbed the tree in his mouth, and ran to Bulkhead. Bulkhead threw the tree in another direction. Grimlock, Sludge, and Slag ran after it. “Well, Bulkhead is playing fetch with the Dinobots,” said Sari. “Some people do that with their dogs…”

“I wanna try!” Bumblebee ran over to the group.

“Anything else?” asked Flareup. She didn’t really see the appeal of throwing a stick for someone to bring it back to you.

“We could go hiking,” suggested Sari. “Given, there’s only so far we can go since we’re on an island, but there’s some interesting things to see.”

Flareup shrugged. “Sure. Where to?”

“We got something that looks like a volcano. I don’t think it’s a volcano, but it still looks like one.”

Flareup blinked at that odd information. “Is it active?”

“No.”

Flareup thought a second before shrugging. “Sure.”

A moment later Sari, Flareup, Silverbolt, and Snarl in beast mode were trekking through the woods.

How was Prowl doing?

“Still can’t find anything like it?” asked Wheeljack.

“No.” And Ratchet had gone through all the medical literature he had on servo too. “I don’t suppose you have any ideas?”

Wheeljack thought for a moment before shrugging. “Maybe he needs to be recalibrated or something.”

Ratchet rolled his optics. That’s what he got for asking an engineer. You’d think ‘engineer’ and ‘medic’ are interchangeable for a species of living robots, but they’re not.

“I better go check on him,” muttered Ratchet. He’d left Prowl in the medical lab to grab some energon and talk to Wheeljack about the situation.

“I’ll come too,” said Wheeljack. “This sounds interesting.”

“It’s not much to see,” said Ratchet as they walked to the lab. “He doesn’t look any different than normal, but he doesn’t respond to anything and doesn’t seem to be aware of what’s going on around him.” Ratchet vented. “I wish I had more sensitive equipment. I might be able to pick up something that I could work with.”

Wheeljack clapped a servo on Ratchet’s back. “You’ll figure something else. You always do.” He looked over to where Prowl was lying down as he entered the medical bay. “Hi Prowl! Feeling better?”

Prowl didn’t respond. Wheeljack would have frowned if he had a mouth. “Prowl?” As he made his way over, he realized that the other mech wasn’t moving. “Is this what you were talking about?”

“Yeah…” Ratchet frowned and picked up Prowl’s servo, moving it about. It didn’t seem to affect him. He positioned the servo over Prowl’s face and dropped it.

As soon as the servo hit his face, Prowl jerked up. Prowl looked around in confusion for a moment before a look of realization crossed his face. “It happened again?”

“Yep.” Ratchet went over to the computer. He’d left some cables hooked up to Prowl to keep track of any changes in his condition.

“Was it really necessary to make me hit myself with my own servo?” asked Prowl, not bothering to hide the annoyance in his voice.

“It was a medical test,” explained Ratchet. “If you’d been conscious in any way, you would’ve moved your hand so it wouldn’t hit you. That you weren’t able to indicates that you weren’t aware of anything.”

“You mean that was a legitimate medical test?” asked Prowl.

“Yep!” said Wheeljack. “He does that with me all the time! Although, I usually miss my face.”

Prowl gave Wheeljack a weird look, like he wasn’t sure what to make of this information. He decided to turn his attention back to Ratchet. “Did you at least find anything conclusive?”

Ratchet looked over the data. “Not that I can see.”

Prowl groaned.

Back on the island:

Flareup looked around the rim of the volcano crater, which had a lot of trees growing in it. She had to admit it looked nice. She figured Prowl would appreciate the view more than her. Maybe she should see about getting a picture. “I guess this is a dead volcano then.”

Sari snorted. “I really doubt this is a volcano. There isn’t a hot spot or a plate seam around here…”

Flareup had no idea what that meant but decided this was something she could just look up later. “Are we going down there?”

Sari shrugged. “Sure, if you want to.”

The quartet climbed down. Flareup personally didn’t see anything special about climbing into the crater. It looked the same except for the circular wall surrounding them.

When she shared that with the rest of the group, Sari frowned but climbed back out with her and Snarl.

Silverbolt was getting tired so he decided to stay in the crater and rest for a little while.

“Anything else to look at?” asked Flareup.

“There’s an abandoned lab and a mine shaft,” said Sari. “Take your pick.”

“Well, the lab sounds interesting,” said Flareup.

There wasn’t much in the lab. When it had been abandoned, the people who used it had taken most of the records with them. There was still some equipment left though.

“This stuff is pretty primitive, but we might be able to use it,” muttered Flareup as she examined a computer console.

Sari made an annoyed sound. “It’s pretty high tech by human standards,” pointed out Sari. “I know it doesn’t look like much to you, but it was state of the art when this place was first built.”

“No offense, but I’ve seen what humans consider high tech,” said Flareup. “I’m pretty sure I could understand and replicate it with the right tools, and I’m no scientist.”

Sari huffed before looking around the lab. “I’d like to see you make a circuit board out of nothing…”

Snarl was bored by the whole thing. “We leave now?”

Flareup shrugged. “Sure, this isn’t as interesting as I thought it would be.”

The group left the lab and continued on their trek. After about 15 minutes, they reached a large hole in the mountain with a set of rails coming out of it. After studying it for a moment, they walked inside.

“What did they mine here anyway?” asked Flareup.

Sari shrugged. “I dunno. People mine all sorts of stuff. Maybe it had something to do with the lab.” Sari thought a moment. “I’m not sure what they’d need for the lab. Maybe copper for the wires.” Sari stopped to carve an arrow into the ground. They didn’t want to get lost.

“Think we could find any deposits left over?” asked Flareup.

Sari shrugged. “I think humans usually find everything before they abandon a mine, but sometimes they have to leave due to structural issues or some other hazard.”

“Doesn’t sound too different from how we mine,” noted Flareup. “’Course I don’t know much about how Cybertronians go about mining either.”

“Can’t know everything,” commented Sari. “We’re only mortal.”

Flareup thought about the rumors she’d heard about the head of the Science Ministry. “Yeah, I guess we are.”

Sari jerked. “What was that?”

Flareup looked around in confusion. “What was what?”

“I heard something.” Sari grabbed her spear. “There shouldn’t be anything this deep in.”

Now she was making Flareup nervous. She quickly formed her guns. Snarl made an annoyed sound.

Sari stuck to the wall, moving silently and quickly. Flareup focused her audials to their limit to try and pick up whatever Sari had heard. After a few moments, she started to hear a sound that she was sure had no place in the mine.

It was a rather disgusting squishing noise. Flareup was certain that whatever was making it was just as disgusting. “What is that?”

Sari frowned. “Don’t know. I’ve never heard that noise before.”

Flareup gave Sari a look of disbelief. “But you live in the wild!”

Sari gave Flareup a look. “That doesn’t mean I know what every noise is! Wildlife differs from place to place!” Sari hissed.

The sound suddenly stopped, causing the three to tense. Then something gray went flying towards Flareup, who shrieked, fired at it, and ducked. It hit Snarl instead. The two women had enough time to notice it had a bright purple eye before it exploded. Snarl made a disgusted noise and tried to rub the mess off.

“Okay…I have no idea what that was,” said Sari.

“It looked sort of like a space barnacle,” said Flareup. “Except they don’t go throwing themselves at bots like that. They just sit on ships and slow them down.”

“Are they organic?” asked Sari. “’Cause they could’ve mutated or something. Given, that usually takes generations, but I don’t know how long these things live.”

“Not very long, only a couple of weeks.” Flareup looked at the mess on Snarl. She made a face and pulled out a small container, scraping some of the remains into it. “Ew, ew, ew.” She cautiously placed the small container in one of her side compartments.

Sari gave Flareup a surprised look. “What’s your problem?”

“I just really hate slime.” Flareup shuddered. “Especially slime that use to be inside something that was alive.”

Sari gave Flareup a look of disbelief. “Are you serious?”

Before Flareup could respond, they heard the squishing noise again. That…That couldn’t be good.

Flareup shrieked and dropped to the ground as soon as she saw something flying out of the darkness, successfully dodging the swarm of space barnacles. Sari was safe as she was too small to latch onto.

Snarl was too big to miss and all the space barnacles latched onto him. Snarl roared and shook his head before turning his attention towards them and growling.

“What happens if space barnacles attach to a Transformer?” asked Sari.

Flareup shrugged. She’d never heard of that sort of thing happening before.

Sari’s question was answered when Snarl shot fire at them. Both dodged. “Are those things controlling him?!” shouted Sari. That was not normal behavior for Snarl.

“I don’t know!” shouted Flareup. “I didn’t study the habits of space parasites!”

“Well, is there any way to get them off?!” asked Sari as she dodged another stream of fire.

“Extreme heat!” shouted Flareup. “That’s how we get them off the ship!”

“Like fire? Maybe we can blow some of the fire back at Snarl!” suggested Sari as she threw herself out of the way of a burst of flame. “He’s pretty much immune to fire!”

“And how are we supposed to do that?!” shouted Flareup.

“I don’t know!” Sari ducked yet another blast of fire. “We could try asking one of the other Dinobots for help!”

That sounded like a good idea so Flareup activated her com link. Or tried to. “Scrap! Something in the dirt is blocking my transmission!”

Sari hesitated for a moment. “I could go get them, but…”

Flareup glanced at Snarl. He was taking up a lot room, so Flareup knew she wouldn’t be able to get by. Sari was small enough to manage, but that would leave Flareup there by herself. “Go! We need help if we want to get these things off Snarl!”

Sari nodded and ran up to Snarl, ducking and weaving around his legs and tail. Snarl seemed to hesitate, trying to decide if he should go after her or stay and fight Flareup. As it was rather difficult to maneuver in the tunnel, he chose to stay.

Flareup smiled nervously. She should be okay as long as he didn’t transform, and she doubted that was a possibility considering the space barnacles were covering several transformation seams.

Flareup froze. What was that noise coming from behind her?

Outside, Sari had started running for the other side of the island as quickly as she could. They’d taken a couple of hours to get to this side of the island, and Sari wasn’t sure how long it was going to take to get back to the other side of the island. She really wished she could go faster. She didn’t know how long Flareup was going to last against Snarl.

It was as she was thinking this that she ran into Silverbolt, literally. She hadn’t been looking where she was going and ran into his leg. “Dad! Am I glad to see you!” Silverbolt gave her a confused and worried look, glancing around for Flareup. “We were in the mine, and something attacked Snarl and attached to him!” Silverbolt’s pupils dilated. “She said fire could get it off, but we didn’t have fire so I have to get one of the other Dinobots, but she couldn’t get around Snarl so I had to leave her there!” By the time she’d finished, Silverbolt was running for the mine. Sari figured he was going to help Flareup stay alive and continued running towards where the others were.

With Prowl:

Prowl was meditating…or was trying to meditate. It was rather hard to meditate when two bots were watching you so intently you could feel it. “Is this really necessary?”

“Aw, c’mon. You like meditating,” said Wheeljack.

Prowl twitched. “Yes, I do. It helps me relax and organize my thoughts. I can even do it around others, but I do not like being scrutinized while doing so, and I prefer to do so listening to background sound.”

Ratchet raised an optic ridge. That sounded off. “Since when?”

“Since the first time I went outside. The forest is full of all sorts of interesting sounds.”

“But…you like for it to be quiet when you meditate.” Ratchet remembered the problems it had caused when they first picked Prowl up. “What brought this about?”

Prowl frowned and shrugged. “I’m not sure. I just know that complete silence…disturbs me now.”

“You weren’t like that before,” muttered Ratchet. Now that he thought about it, Prowl had occasionally been doing odd things, like humming and trying to be in the same room as at least one other bot. “That’s another reason to suspect a psychological cause. Now, where did I put that datapad…”

Prowl just groaned as Wheeljack patted him on the shoulder.

Back on the island:

Flareup was really cursing fate, her luck, and space barnacles right about now. Snarl was a problem, but he was a manageable problem. Due to the barnacles covering him and the walls surrounding him, he couldn’t transform, and he could only attack with his flamethrower and head butts. Flareup up could dodge those without too much of a problem, even if it was slowly pushing her back.

Then more space barnacles showed up. They were on some sort of body, completely covering it. Flareup wasn’t sure what it was, but it was shambling and in bad shape. Flareup suspected it was made of discarded machinery. So now she was sandwiched between two dangerous machines being controlled by space barnacles.

At least she could shoot the zombie one. Except the space barnacles were growing back somehow so it wasn’t doing much good. And she was not going to touch either of them. She did not want to get zombified via barnacles.

Speaking of which, a space barnacle would occasionally throw itself at her, which was yet one more thing to dodge. Flareup wasn’t sure how much longer she could keep this up. Yeah, it took a while for her to get tired, but she was running out of space.

As she thought this, she saw a gray blur scramble over Snarl and throw itself at the other zombie. The blur turned out to be a growling Silverbolt. Relief swelled up in Flareup’s chassis at the sight. “Am I happy to see you!”

Silverbolt’s response was to jump up and grab a flying barnacle in his mouth. He clamped down on it hard enough to make a disturbing crunching noise and flung it to the side.

Well, one less space barnacle to worry about.

Silverbolt was avoiding attacking Snarl. He leapt at the zombie and tried clawing and biting at it. The scratching was making a noise that suggested that it was doing something, but he couldn’t find anything good to bite down on. After a moment of scrabbling and dodging clumsy swipes, Silverbolt jumped off, seemingly glaring at the zombie.

“Sari better get back soon,” muttered Flareup.

That was when something happened that Flareup wasn’t expecting. Silverbolt charged at the zombie, but he transformed into a bipedal form right before he tackled the monstrosity. Then he grabbed an arm and spun, throwing it into the wall.

Flareup was so shocked, she didn’t notice or dodge the latest flamethrower attack from Snarl, which hit her right in the back, sending her forward with a hiss of pain. What Silverbolt just did, that was transforming that was unique Cybertronians! Which meant… “You’re Cybertronian!”

Silverbolt was too focused on beating the living scrap out of barnacle zombie to make much of a response. Flareup wasn’t sure what to make of seeing an organic animal turning into a robot.

Maybe he was a combination of the two, although Flareup wasn’t sure how that would work. She absentmindedly dodged a space barnacle as she tried to figure out what she was seeing as Silverbolt did his best to kill the barnacle zombie. He was slicing it with his wings in addition to everything else. And they were actually doing damage!

That was possibly the strangest thing Flareup had ever seen. So she did the only thing she could think of to do. “But I’ve seen you consume organic material!” She dodged a head butt. “And you feel organic! How can you be a robot?! Are you a hybrid or something?! How does a Cybertronian-organic hybrid even happen?!”

Silverbolt made an annoyed sound before making a short jerking motion and then a slash across his throat.

Flareup had no idea what that meant. “You aren’t going to answer?!” She dodged a space barnacle. “Or…Oh, I get it! You can’t talk!” Flame thrower. “That’s gotta be a pain…” Head butt. “Wait. Were those your drawings in that cave?! There were Cybertronian glyphs in there, and that means someone familiar with Cybertron lives there!”

Silverbolt made an annoyed growl. Maybe he shouldn’t have transformed after all.

Back on the other side of the island:

Bumblebee tilted his head. “So, what is it supposed to be?”

“Birdy!” said Sludge, looking rather proud of herself.

Bumblebee looked at the shape Sludge had drawn on the ground. He supposed that it was the right shape, but it didn’t really look like a bird. Then again, Bumblebee wasn’t one to talk. He was a horrible artist too.

Bulkhead had decided to show the Dinobots how to draw. Grimlock and Slag had quickly grown bored so Bulkhead had started throwing a log for the two to fetch again.

Swoop was trying to draw the Autobot symbol on his chest, but it was upside down. Swoop seemed to have realized this half way through and was glaring at the symbol.

And that was when Sari ran into the clearing. She bent over, panting heavily. “Finally!”

“Sari? You okay?” asked Bulkhead.

“Where’s Flareup?” asked Bumblebee.

“And Grandpa?” continued Grimlock.

“We were in the mine,” panted Sari. “There were these things. I think Flareup called them space barnacles. They latched onto Snarl and are controlling him. Flareup says we can get them off with heat. We gotta go now!”

That was all she needed to say to get the Dinobots moving.

Back in the mine:

“I don’t think it’s getting back up.”

Silverbolt had managed to hit the zombie hard enough to embed it into the floor. It didn’t seem able to get back up, but Silverbolt was continuing to stomp on it. When Flareup pointed out that it wasn’t moving, Silverbolt paused and looked it over. It was still trying to move slightly so he stomped on its arm one more time before going over to Flareup.

Flareup still wasn’t sure what to make of the revelation that Silverbolt was apparently some sort of Transformer. She couldn’t even tell if he was an Autobot or a Decepticon. “I don’t care if you can’t talk. I’m gonna get your story from you somehow.”

Silverbolt gave her a look of disbelief.

“Hey! I’m tired of not knowing things!” And that was true. Flareup had spent time watching history vids, but there had always been bits and pieces left out. That bothered her. She wanted to know what was being left out. She tried asking Ratchet and Wheeljack, but both claimed that it was confidential information.

This had Flareup doing some research of her own, going through every history vid, including the stuff that led up to the war. As she watched them, she noted they were rather one-sided, showing the worst of the Decepticons even before the war for…a long time.

The humans had a saying: History was written by the victors. Flareup couldn’t help but feel that it could apply to Cybertron as well.

And now she found that there was one more piece of information that had been kept from her, even if it may not have been intentional. “If we’d known there was another Transformer, we could’ve gotten a lot more information about this planet! You could’ve helped us out, and we might not have had to worry about Wheeljack and Bumblebee getting abducted by Lockdown! Or rampaging dinosaur animatronics!” Although they did get the Dinobots from the last one. “Not to mention you seem to have more combat skills than the rest of the crew! Except maybe Prowl.” But he’d been too injured to fight for a while so he didn’t count. She pointed an accusing finger at Silverbolt. “I have half a processor to tell every bot as soon as we get out of this situation!”

Silverbolt made some movements with his servos that Flareup vaguely recognized as human sign language. As it was rather sloppy and Flareup was distracted by the need to dodge Snarl’s attacks, Flareup didn’t think she’d be able to translate it even if she did know sign language. She made a note to download that language so she could at least try to have a conversation with Silverbolt.

She was thrown off kilter when he suddenly changed back to his beast mode. Then she heard a loud roaring sound. “Finally!” She could just barely make out Sari’s instructions not touch Snarl before several blasts of fire came shooting out from behind Snarl.

Flareup wasn’t sure why, but she threw herself in front of Silverbolt to protect him from any stray bits of fire that might make it this far. She could hear Snarl roaring in pain as well before she heard the sounds of transforming and saw his robot form storming past them. He promptly started whaling on the zombie with his flaming shield. His siblings decided to help. The rest of the group focused on Flareup and Silverbolt. “Are you guys okay?” asked Bumblebee.

Flareup nodded wordlessly. Silverbolt whined and licked Flareup’s face. She honestly didn’t know what to make of that with the revelation of the fact they were the same species.

“You don’t look okay,” said Bulkhead.

“Huh?” Silverbolt started licking Flareup’s back. Flareup blinked and reached back to feel it. The metal was warped. It must have been when Snarl hit her with the flamethrower. It had done more damage than she thought. She vented and stood up. “I’d like to go home now.”

“I think that’s a good idea,” said Sari. “I’m not a medic, but that looks painful…And I’d understand if you’d rather not spend the night on the island.”

“Yeah, not after this.” Flareup stood up and winced. Now that the battle high was wearing down, she hurt a lot. “A little help here?”

“Right.” Bulkhead carefully picked her up. This was slightly problematic as most of her back was warped and painful, but Flareup grit her denta and dealt with it. “Don’t worry. We’ll be back at the ship before you know it.”

“Thank you…”

As Bulkhead ambled off, Bumblebee and Sari stared at the Dinobots. “So, how long do you think this is going to go on?” asked Bumblebee.

Sari shrugged. “I’m not sure. I’ve never seen them this angry before.”

Silverbolt just snorted and lay down. He was tired and sore from the fight, and he was going to get some rest while he could.

None of them noticed a dark figure clinging to the ceiling.

Down below:

“Have you ever knowingly hurt yourself?”

Prowl groaned. “No.”

“Have you ever had the urge to hurt yourself?”

“…Once.”

“Why?”

“I would rather not say.”

Ratchet vented. “Look. I get there are some things you don’t want to talk about, but if I want to try and figure something out, I need you to answer all the questions honestly.”

“Let’s just say I did something that disappointed someone I cared for quite a bit and leave it at that.”

Ratchet gave him the stink optic, but decided to move on. “Have you ever considered committing suicide?”

“…Yes.”

“Why?”

“The bot I cared for deactivated.”

“That’s a pretty severe reaction,” noted Ratchet. “Any idea why?”

“There weren’t many bots I was close to,” explained Prowl. “So when the one bot I cared for deactivated…”

Ratchet nodded. That seemed normal in his opinion. “Did you ever feel depressed?”

Prowl gave him a glare for what he felt was a stupid question before something caught his optic. “Did something happen?”

Ratchet turned, and his optics widened when he caught sight of Bulkhead and Flareup. “What happened to you?”

At this point, Flareup was in enough pain that she was not going to respond. She was more interested in keeping as much of her warped plating from touching anything as possible. “Um, Sari didn’t do a good job of explaining it,” said Bulkhead. “I think it had something to do with space barnacles taking over Snarl’s processor.”

Ratchet took a moment to run this completely ridiculous scenario through his processor. “He set her on fire?!”

“It was an accident!” protested Bulkhead. “Sort of!”

Ratchet decided the how wasn’t important at the moment and used his magnets to levitate Flareup out of Bulkhead’s servos. She noticeably relaxed as the pressure was removed from her back. Ratchet carefully maneuvered her over to the medical berth, which Prowl had slipped off of. “Do you mind?”

Prowl wordlessly flipped Flareup over so that she was facing downward. Ratchet lay her down on the medical berth. He did a quick examination of the damage. It looked like it was mainly her outer armor that took the damage, but he couldn’t know for sure until he removed said armor. “Flareup, I’m going to put you under while I make the repairs. Are you okay with this?”

Flareup nodded. Ratchet grabbed the EMP generator but hesitated for a moment before using it at the lowest setting.

This wasn’t like what happened to Arcee. It was a controlled environment.

Ratchet got to work removing the armor. “Well, are you going to explain what happened or not?”

“I wasn’t there,” said Bulkhead. “But Sari said that there were space barnacles in the mine.”

Ratchet groaned. Obviously he was going to have to wait until Flareup was conscious to ask about what had happened. Whatever it was, it sounded very strange.

Then again, this planet was pretty strange. He really should be used to all the surprises by now.

Detroit:

Nancy had fallen asleep on her windowsill. She’d wanted to stay up until Laserbeak returned, but Soundwave wasn’t surprised that she hadn’t been able to. She wasn’t used to staying up so late. As he dragged her to her bed and tucked her in, Laserbeak landed on the window. Soundwave opened the window so Laserbeak could dart in before anyone could see him. “Laserbeak: Report.”

Laserbeak transferred the data over to Soundwave over the link that connected the two. Soundwave carefully went through everything Laserbeak had seen and heard and picked out a few very important bits. He pat Laserbeak on the beak. “Laserbeak: Performed admirably. Data: Very important. Megatron: Now able to move forward.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _And now Butterflies presents: Questions and Answers with Vector Prime._
> 
> There was no one in the study. “Down here.” The camera looked down to a human wearing a gas mask, a fedora, and a trench coat. “Hi, KHGiggle here. Vector couldn’t do the usual session because he had a meeting with Sailor Pluto. Turns out he can be late to meetings if the other party can also control time, and he hates being late.”
> 
> “So…We got some encouraging reviews.” KHGiggle gave a thumbs up. “Thanks guys! It’s glad to know people are enjoying our work.”
> 
> “So…I’m not sure if that’s really where they found the space barnacle monster since I have a horrible, horrible sense of direction. If it’s not…Just pretend Vector used his powers to move it.”
> 
> “And uh…What else? Oh! Right. Silverbolt is mute. Don’t worry though. That’s only temporary. He’ll be talking before you know it. I just wanted someone to know sign language and needed a valid reason for ‘em to bother to learn.”
> 
> “And…Oh yeah, Vector said something about Allspark energy weakening barriers, so we’re gonna have a guest either next chapter or the one after it. He’s not sure which. We haven’t settled on who to have over, but I think he’s leaning towards Solus. If you wanna ask her, or anyone else, questions go ahead and send us a review with the question.”
> 
> KHGiggle waved. “Buh-bye! See you guys next time!”
> 
> _This has been questions and answers with Vector Prime._
> 
> “We gottta fix that recording for when he’s not here…”


	11. Megatron Rising

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Megatron makes his move

“Finally! I can’t believe it took so long to find all your parts!” complained Starscream as he tried to lift the shoulder armor he’d located. As it was Lugnut’s, this was harder than it sounded. “What was in that explosion? I swear some of your parts got blown into the next state…”

Lugnut ended Starscream’s griping by picking up the shoulder armor and putting it where it was supposed to go. “Now we can fetch the hybrid as Megatron commanded!”

Starscream raised an optic ridge. “Come again?”

Hothead Blitzwing hit Lugnut over the head. “For the last time, Megatron is not here, and he is not communicating with you!”

Starscream could only stare at the two. “Okay…” Looks like Lugnut had finally lost it. “What’s this about a hybrid?”

Blitzwing switched to Icy. His left optic was still cracked and blind, but they didn’t have anyone who knew how to fix it. “Lugnut thought he needed to kidnap one of the local organics. Only there were Transformers there too, along with a larger organic.”

Starscream made a face. “Was it about this big? Gray? Furry? Yellow wings?”

Blitzwing raised an optical ridge. “Yes. You’ve seen it before?”

Starscream shuddered as he remembered the feeling of getting his servo ripped off. “Yeah…Let’s try to avoid that one.” Now, to steer away from that awkward conversation topic. “But I do have some good news! The Allspark is on this planet.”

The other two Decepticons tensed up. “Are you sure?” asked Blitzwing.

Starscream nodded. “I was picking up the signal when I first got here, but the Autobots managed to find a way to hide it. Before they did though, it was coming from that large body of water.”

Elsewhere:

_“Seriously, I’m gonna get fired if something doesn’t happen soon.”_

Megatron ignored Hector as he noticed something. **It appears Lugnut and Blitzwing have finally finished repairing themselves. Reopen communication channels with Lugnut and Soundwave. We have work to do.**

Back with the Decepticons:

**Lugnut.**

Lugnut’s optics would’ve widened if they could. “Master…”

Starscream grinned, thinking Lugnut was talking about him. “I like the sound of that.”

“I knew you couldn’t be gone! I felt it in my circuits!”

Stascream blinked. “What?”

Lugnut continued to ignore everything but the voice in his head. “Please, tell me that I may serve you and bring glory to the Decepticon name!”

Starscream stared before turning to Blitzwing. “Minor glitch,” explained Icy. “It happens.” He switched to Random. “A lot actually!”

“Shall I retrieve the Allspark for you my master?” continued Lugnut.

**I refuse to let Starscream lay his greasy servos on the Allspark. However, it seems there is another a way to restore my body.**

“That is most wonderful news!”

**Unfortunately, there is a small chance it will not work, and I can only trust you to fulfill this task.**

Lugnut bowed. “I am honored by your trust in me, my lord.”

“Okay, do we need to defrag him?” asked Starscream. “He wasn’t doing this the last time I saw him.”

“Ah, don’t worry. He just needs his hunny to make him feel better!” said Blitzwing

Starscream made a face. “His what?”

Blitzwing switched back to Icy. “Strika.”

“What about her?” asked Starscream.

“She said if we weren’t back by the end of the orbital cycle, she was going to come get us herself, and she promised to bring her team with her,” explained Blitzwing.

Starscream’s optics widened. “They’re coming here?” He groaned. “Just great. She’s never liked me.”

**Good. You’re outnumbered, and the Dinobots are strong enough that you could have trouble otherwise.**

Lugnut nodded. “Then I shall wait until my beloved arrives to follow your plan.”

Starscream growled. “Hey! I’m the leader! We’ll do as I say!”

**Do me a favor and punch Starscream, will you?**

*Clang!*

“Ow!”

“Ahahahahahaha!”

Dinobot Island:

Prowl stretched as climbed onto the shore. He’d finally managed to talk Ratchet into letting him out of the med bay and had gotten permission to go outside for a couple of cycles. Flareup gave him an amused look as the Dinobots started to amble over. “Happy to be out and about?”

Prowl nodded. “Very.” He reached out to pet Sludge as she nuzzled him.

“Why you Flareup have gray back?” asked Grimlock, poking at said area.

Flareup growled before turning and batting his digit away. “Don’t do that.”

“She’s still sore,” explained Prowl. Snarl shuffled guiltily. He still bad about hurting Flareup.

Fortunately, Flareup had decided not to hold a grudge. “Hey, it’s okay.” She rubbed the Stegosaur’s head. “You weren’t yourself.”

Sari nodded. “If I’d known that something like that was here, I wouldn’t have moved ‘em here.” She paused in thought. “Maybe we better move somewhere else.”

“I wouldn’t worry about it. Space barnacles aren’t very mobile. It should be safe as long as you don’t go back into the mine,” said Flareup. “Anyway, I need to have a private chat with your dad.”

Sari’s eyes narrowed. “Why?”

Flareup shrugged. “I just wanna ask him a couple of things.” Silverbolt made his way to Flareup’s side. “See? He’s okay with it.”

Sari gave them a nervous look. “You sure you wanna go through with this?” Silverbolt nodded. “…Okay…Be careful.”

Silverbolt nodded again before walking out of the clearing, Flareup following close behind.

“I can’t help but wonder how the two of them are going to communicate,” admitted Prowl.

Sari shrugged. “Dad’s smart enough. He’ll figure something out.”

Flareup and Silverbolt kept walking until Silverbolt suddenly stopped.

“Here’s good?”

Silverbolt nodded and transformed to his bipedal mode. Now that she wasn’t fighting for her life in a dark cave, Flareup could get a good look at him. The guy had to at least be as tall as Bulkhead. He still had a head that resembled a wolf’s, but the muzzle seemed a bit shorter. His wings looked the same too. His arms were gray and covered in fur and his servos were black. His thighs were also gray and furry, but from the knees down they were yellow, and Flareup was pretty sure they were his forelegs from his alt mode. He had toes too. His chest was gray, but didn’t have as much fur as the other parts of his body. He did have a large, red, sun tattoo covering most of it though. He also had what looked like a loincloth, but Flareup couldn’t tell if it was part of his body or an article of clothing like the orange bandanna he was wearing around his neck.

All in all, Silverbolt was probably one of the odder looking mechs Flareup had ever seen. She’d have taken a picture if she hadn’t thought Silverbolt would destroy the camera.

“Okay, just to be clear, you are mute, right?” Silverbolt nodded. “And that was sign language you used back in the mine?” Silverbolt nodded. Flareup was relieved. “Good. I downloaded everything I could find on the language. It’s surprisingly complicated for something you express entirely using your servos. Now, why can’t you talk?” Silverbolt shrugged. “Really? You have no idea?”

Silverbolt started signing. Flareup frowned. Recognizing the signs was harder than she thought it would be. “You just were like that? Wait that can’t be right. If there was a problem with a protoform it would be recycled before a spark was put in it.” Silverbolt repeated the motions. “Okay, think I might be missing something. You just…something like that?” Silverbolt nodded. “Okay…moving on. How did you get here?”

Silverbolt started spelling. “T-R-A-N-S-W-A-R-P and another word…Um, explosion?” Silverbolt nodded. “You got here because of an explosion? I don’t see how that works. Did your ship blow up or something?” He shook his head. “Well, how did you end up like…that?” She gestured at his body, figuring he would get the point. Silverbolt repeated the gestures.

Flareup wasn’t sure how an explosion would result in this. “You’re partially organic, right?” Silverbolt nodded. Weird, didn’t explosions usually damage material instead? Maybe it would make sense after she looked up what transwarp meant. “Okay, moving on.”

Both jumped as a loud boom echoed across the sky. “What was that?!” shouted Flareup.

Silverbolt shrugged, not knowing himself.

Elsewhere, Nancy was rudely awakened when her bed covers were yanked off. She groaned and glared at Ravage, who had pulled the sheets off and was now sitting on them. “What was that for? It’s Saturday!”

“Signal: Given,” explained Soundwave.

Nancy grunted before climbing off the bed and looking for a decent outfit to wear for the day.

A few minutes later Nancy was walking out of the house, holding Soundwave to her chest. It was mildly humiliating for him, but he’d attract attention if he walked on his own.

Forest Beach:

Starscream tapped his digits in annoyance. “What’s taking them so long?”

“Probably just need to get used to navigating,” said Icy Blitzwing. “The air currents are a bit unpredictable.” He switched to Random. “Just like me! Ahahaha!”

Starscream groaned. Blitzwing’s antics were making him actually look forward to Team Chaar’s arrival. Starscream’s thoughts were cut off as he heard some loud stomping sounds. The small group turned towards the source in time to see several mechs and a very large femme come into view.

Lugnut was the first to react. “My love!” He ran to Strika and the two embraced.

It was a bit like watching two planets collide. Everyone was always struck speechless when the two showed affection for one another.

Fortunately, the two weren’t that affectionate regularly. They parted. “Now, what was taking you so long?” asked Strika. She eyed his dings. “Did you get into a fight?”

“Indeed.”

“Did you win?” continued Strika.

“We got blown up!” said Blitzwing.

Strika gave Random a disbelieving look. “…What?”

Starscream rolled his optics. “There was a bomb. Blew them to pieces.”

Oil Slick looked Starscream over. “When did you get here?”

“I tracked the Allspark’s energy signal here orbital cycles ago!” explained Starscream, annoyed for some reason only he knew. “The only reason I haven’t retrieved it and left already is because the Autobots found a way to hide it and a giant organic thing keeps attacking me whenever I get close to the lake!”

Oil Slick raised an optic ridge. “Right…an organic.”

Starscream growled at the tone before a shiver ran up his spine. It felt like something was staring a hole through him. He turned and saw an unfamiliar seeker staring at him. “Who is that?”

“That would be Cyclonus,” said Oil Slick. “Odd, usually he just stares into space.”

Starscream shuddered and turned away. “Are we going to get the Allspark or not?”

“No!” shouted Lugnut. “Megatron has ordered us to retrieve his body!”

Starscream groaned and Random Blitzwing cackled. Team Chaar was just confused. “Dear, Megatron was blown up. You saw it happen,” said Strika.

“I will not believe he is gone until I see his cold, offline body myself!”

“That’s gonna be difficult considering he was blown into pieces!” shouted Starscream.

“Lies!”

Strika vented. While she was glad that Lugnut was so loyal to those he had faith in (It was a trait that was very hard to find.), it could make him very obstinate. Fortunately, she had a lot of experience getting around this. “You said Megatron has ordered you to retrieve his body, correct?” Lugnut nodded. “Did he send you coordinates?” Lugnut nodded again. “Right, we’ll go check out these coordinates. If nothing’s there, then Megatron couldn’t have sent you the coordinates, could he?”

“…No,” admitted Lugnut.

Strika nodded, glad her mate was willing to admit that at the very least. “That’s right. Now, let’s go check out those coordinates.”

Starscream’s optics widened. “Hey! Wait!” Too late. Lugnut had transformed and carried Strika off. Starscream growled. “Why isn’t anyone listening to me?!”

“Because you’re crazy as a coconut!”

Starscream twitched at the weird reference. “Shut up Blitzwing! And stop staring at me!”

Cyclonus ignored the command and kept staring at Starscream, making him even more uncomfortable, little by little. Fraggit, that was a creepy mech.

Detroit:

Nancy had been following Soundwave’s directions for a few minutes now when she reached a deserted corner of Detroit. Sitting there was a black and green muscle car with spikes. The right back door opened. Nancy climbed in and looked around. The inside was dark with an 8 ball on the stick shift and a steering wheel made from a chain. Despite the fact that no one else was in the car, it started up and pulled out of its parking spot. Nancy buckled herself in, curled up, and went back to sleep.

Dinobot Island:

“What exactly would Flareup want to talk to your father about?” asked Prowl as he corrected Snarl’s stance.

Sari shrugged. “I dunno. Maybe something happened in the mine when Dad went to help her out,” suggested Sari. She paused. “Snarl, do you remember anything from that time?”

Snarl growled angrily. It was pretty clear that he now hated space barnacles…and possibly Earth barnacles as well.

“Do you remember if Grandpa did anything strange?” asked Sari.

Snarl thought for a second before shaking his head. “Grandpa normal. He fight like us. He transform like us.”

Sari’s eyes widened as Prowl’s head spun so quickly that Sari was surprised he didn’t get whiplash. “He can transform? Like you?” Snarl nodded. Prowl whirled to face Sari. “Why didn’t you mention this before?”

“It’s none of your business,” said Sari. Just her luck that Snarl had to let that slip.

“None of our business?! That method of transformation is unique to Transformers! And organic life forms shouldn’t be capable of transforming unless…” Prowl trailed off. “That was his cave Bumblebee found, wasn’t it?

Sari tensed slightly, which was all Prowl needed to confirm his suspicions. A cold fury started to build in the pit of his chassis. “You deliberately kept this information from us. You’ve been deceiving us this whole time.”

“Well, yeah, why would we want you to know that?” asked Sari. “It’s a private family matter.”

That hurt, and Prowl had no idea why. “I snuck out energon and was punished for doing so. I did everything I could to hide your existence, and this is how you thank me?”

Sari crossed her arms and glared at Prowl. “You didn’t hide us! You went behind my back and told your buddies about the Dinobots. I still can’t believe Dad let you take them into the city to fight a known bounty hunter.”

“That was a matter of life and death,” said Prowl, defending himself. “If I hadn’t done that, there’s a good chance we would have all been captured, and then the Dinobots would have starved to death. And the two Decepticons that blew up the forest found you on their own without any of us realizing they were here. You would have been found out even if we had managed to get away from Lockdown without the Dinobots’ assistance.”

“They had Wheeljack with them,” argued Sari.

“He was a hostage,” said Prowl, incensed that Sari would suggest Wheeljack had helped a Decepticon in anyway. “He didn’t even know where you were or how to find you.”

“And then he blew up the forest and we had to move!”

“You wouldn’t have been able to defeat Lugnut and Blitzwing without that explosion!”

Snarl looked between the two with wide optics as the argument continued to get even worse. This…was actually quite distressing. He instantly sought out his siblings in the back of his mind, hoping one of them would be able to help calm their parents down.

Detroit:

“I can’t believe I’m doing this,” muttered Hector as he climbed into the driver’s seat of the muscle car. He took a glance at the little girl in the backseat. “How did Soundwave talk a little kid into helping him?”

“Don’t know, don’t care,” came a deep voice from the dashboard. The car started up and drove along the road on its own. “He can choose whatever tool he wants as long as it gets the job done.”

Hector sighed. He was really starting to hate his life.

Dinobot Island:

Lugnut dropped Strika on the ground while transforming to land next to her. Strika looked around. “These are the coordinates? There’s nothing here.”

“No, it’s in there,” said Lugnut, pointing behind her.

Strika turned to see what looked like a cave entrance. It appeared to be artificially made, and someone had carved ‘Warning: mutant space barnacles’ above the entrance. That was strange, and Strika hated space barnacles. Good thing she still had some of Oil Slick’s special acid bombs.

Docks:

“Do I want to know how Megatron got his hands on a speedboat?” asked Hector.

Lockdown chuckled. “Who says he was the one who got it?”

Hector didn’t know why a robot that can turn into a car would need a boat. Perhaps the water pressure was too great for Lockdown to just walk across the bottom of the lake? Hector shrugged and climbed into the boat. Nancy and Soundwave were already there. Nancy was trying to skip stones again. Soundwave was sitting next to her and providing the stones for skipping. Hector raised an eyebrow when he saw how many stones were next to the two. “Where are you getting those from?”

“Answer: Not important.”

Hector groaned. “My partners for this assignment are a little kid and a robot that talks like a computer.”

“I thought robots had computers for brains,” pointed out Nancy in her childish innocence. Soundwave nodded.

Hector facepalmed. Lockdown just laughed from where he was listening in.

Back in the mine:

“I think it’s this way.”

It was the fifth time Lugnut had said that. Strika couldn’t tell if he knew where he was going, but she was starting to get frustrated. “Lugnut, if we don’t find something soon, we’re leaving.”

“We’re almost at the coordinates. It’s just a little further.” Lugnut picked up the pace, anxious to reach the coordinates before his sparkmate dragged him out. She was one of the few bots capable of doing that. His spark lifted as he saw something embedded into the ground. “There!” He ran forward and started dragging the item out of the hole. “This is what we’ve been sent to retrieve!”

Strika stared at the mass. It was a mess. She wiped some of the grime off. Well, there was a Decepticon sigil, and it was the right shade of gray. However, it also looked like it belonged in a scrapheap. She carefully pried open the chest plate.

What do you know? The spark was still functioning. The body must have gone into emergency stasis, which brought up the question of how Lugnut had received this information.

Well, the head wasn’t here, and Megatron had always been quite crafty.

“We’ll take Megatron’s body outside and contact the others. Until then, explain what Megatron wants you to do exactly.”

Outside:

“Okay, you need to stay perfectly still, understand?”

Nancy, who was holding Soundwave again, nodded. “But how do I walk?”

“You can walk, but that’s it.” Hector cocked his gun and pressed it against Nancy’s head. “And this is loaded with real bullets.”

Nancy’s eyes widened.

Back with Sari and Prowl:

“Silverbolt wasn’t exactly forthcoming either!”

“You leave my father out of this! And he’s mute!”

“How pray tell would he be able to tell you so much about Cybertron if he can’t talk?” Prowl had figured that little oddity out just a moment ago. “Please, do share.”

“Sign language! And he’s way more comfortable in his alt mode than his robot mode!”

“How would you know ‘sign language’? I know for a fact that most humans only use one language to communicate.”

Sari rolled her eyes at what she felt was a stupid question. “He can still write genius. I thought you said you found his cave.”

The Dinobots had abandoned whatever they were doing to watch the argument between what they considered to be their parents. They didn’t understand what the fight was about, and now they were all as distressed as Snarl and huddled together while they tried to come up with some way to make their parents stop shouting.

“So you admit that was his cave!”

“Of course! Do you see any other Cybertronians running around?”

“I don’t know. Is there?”

“No!”

“And give me one reason why I should believe you when you’ve been lying to my face up to this moment.”

Hector sweatdropped at the scene. Everyone was so caught up in the argument that they hadn’t noticed him entering the clearing, despite the fact he was holding a gun to a kid’s head. He’d think that would catch anyone’s attention. “Hey!”

That did catch their attention. Everyone tensed when they saw the two. The Dinobots moved forward to attack, but Sari held up a hand to stop them. “Don’t!” She turned to Hector. “What’s the big idea?”

“I need you to come with me, and this seemed like the best way to get that without having to deal with that lot,” explained Hector, gesturing towards the growling Dinobots.

“How do you even know about us?” asked Prowl. He eyed Nancy, recognizing her. She shrugged, signaling that she hadn’t said anything. She hadn’t even seen this man before today.

Hector felt a familiar tingle of electricity at the back of his head. “I can’t say, and when I say that, I mean I am physically incapable of doing so.” 

Sari looked at Hector, then Nancy. She winced. There was no way she could do anything that could result in Nancy being hurt, much less killed. “I’ll go.” She turned to the others. “And don’t follow me! I mean it!”

Hector was not going to turn his back to the robots. He walked backwards with Sari following from enough of a distance that he wouldn’t have to worry about an attack from her.  
As soon as Prowl was sure they were out of hearing range, he turned to Grimlock. “Get Flareup and Silverbolt.”

As Grimlock ambled off, Prowl started slowly following the humans. He couldn’t just sit back and let a small child be put into danger. And…While Prowl didn’t like Sari, he didn’t want her to get killed either.

The remaining Dinobots exchanged looks as their father slunk out of view.

“Thought we not follow,” said Slag.

Swoop shrugged. “Big bots weird.”

“We go too?” asked Sludge.

“We too loud,” deadpanned Snarl. The other Dinobots slumped. That was a very good reason not to follow Prowl’s example.

Mine entrance:

“That’s his plan? It seems risky, but if he’s in the shape I think he is, I doubt he has much a choice,” muttered Strika. She put down the body so she could activate her com link. “Oil Slick, come in.”

_“Yes?”_

“Is this line secure? I don’t want anyone hearing what I have to say.”

_“It’s secure. Besides, I’m trying to repair Blitzwing’s optic. No one’s interested in watching that.”_

“Lugnut was indeed receiving coordinates that led us to Megatron’s body, what was left of it anyway.”

_“Really?”_

“The spark is still functioning.”

Oil Slick was silent for a moment. _“So he’s still alive then. That’s quite a surprise. Starscream is rather insistent that he saw Megatron blow up.”_

“Starscream has been vying for Megatron’s position for vorns,” said Strika. “Be careful about slipping him any information.”

_“Of course.”_

“Do you have anything to form a patch between two bots? We’re going to need one.”

_“Will a cortical psychic patch work?”_

Strika couldn’t stop her optical ridges from rising. “Why do you have one of those?”

_“I thought it would come in handy in case we absolutely needed to get a piece of information.”_

Strika nodded in understanding before turning her attention to Lugnut. “Will a cortical psychic patch do?”

 **It will.** Lugnut nodded.

“It will do,” relayed Strika. “We’ll meet you at these coordinates. It sounds as though there will be one other party to expect. It will likely contain some of the native inhabitants so try to reign in any destructive tendencies until after we finish the repairs.”

_“Understood.”_

Strika turned off the com link and glanced at Lugnut, who seemed to be trying to find a way to carry Megatron’s body while transforming. “Put that down and transform. I’ll attach it to your alt mode for you.”

Lugnut did so. One thing quickly became clear to him as Strika attached the body. “You will not be joining us?”

“I will, I’ll just have to walk,” said Strika. It was annoying that she couldn’t take part in what was sure to be a decisive battle, but perhaps she’d be able to reach the location before everything was over and done with. “There done. Best get there before Starscream.”

Lugnut immediately took off and headed for Detroit. Strika opticed the water separating her from the mainland. Too bad Lugnut couldn’t carry her as well. She hated having to walk through liquids.

With the other Decepticons:

“I got an update from Strika,” said Oil Slick. “There wasn’t anything of note there. Looks like Lugnut’s been hacked. On the bright side, Strika managed to track the signal and gave me the coordinates.”

“I’m going with you,” said Starscream. He pointed an accusing finger at Cyclonus. “That guy won’t stop staring at me! It’s seriously starting to creep me out!”

Blitzwing switched to Random, earning an annoyed sound from Oil Slick, who’d been putting the finishing touches on Icy’s monocle. “Aw, he likes you!” said Random in a teasing tone.”

Starscream looked at Cyclonus and his dead optics. “That is not like! I don’t even think there’s anything in there!”

Oil Slick shrugged. “I never said I was going. You and Blitzwing rank above me so you get the final say.”

Blitzwing switched to Hothead. “I say we find whoever did that hacking and slag him! Do you know what I had to put up with because of that?!”

“Us too?” asked Blackout. Spittor made a happy slurping sound at the thought of getting to eat some more of the local fauna.

“Now hold on! What about the Allspark?!” demanded Starscream. “We need to get it before the Autobots figure out that reinforcements have arrived!”

“Aren’t you curious about who’s decided to pose as Megatron?” asked Oil Slick. “Perhaps someone’s trying to pull a coup?”

That made Starscream change his tune real quick. “We’ll go to the coordinates!”

Blitzwing switched to Icy and raised an optic ridge. Oil Slock just grinned. He loved messing with other bots’ processors.

Dinobot Island:

“This is gonna take a lot longer than I thought,” muttered Flareup. She’d been trying to translate the hand signs Silverbot made, but it was much more difficult than translating a written language, and there were words that she didn’t recognize. Silverbolt had tried to explain what these words meant, but that was difficult as he had to either spell them out one letter at a time or use other words, some of which Flareup didn’t recognize either.

So far Flareup had managed to get that Silverbolt was from Cybertron. He was Neutral. He was partially organic, but how that happened was rather sketchy. He didn’t know why he could fly. He couldn’t before. He’d adopted Sari because she had no one else and nowhere to go. Silverbolt wasn’t his original name. He wouldn’t explain why he changed his name. He also had a reason for initially avoiding the Autobots, but Flareup couldn’t understand why.

As Silverbolt was trying to explain and Flareup was trying to translate, Grimlock ambled over. “Grandpa! Bad man take Mommy! Us Dinobots get back?”

Both Flareup and Silverbolt’s optics widened before Silverbolt transformed and ran off in the direction Grimlock had come from. Flareup stared at Grimlock, completely dumbfounded. “How did someone manage to kidnap Sari? She was with you guys and Prowl! And even if she wasn’t, she was able to help you guys fight a couple of Decepticon Elite without getting injured. How could any normal human manage to abduct her?”

“Him bad man have tiny human,” explained Grimlock.

Flareup frowned. “Another hostage? That could explain why she went.” One thing human and Transformer cultures had in common was that they considered offspring very precious. If you had strong maternal instincts (Which Sari probably did with how she treated the Dinobots.) you’d probably do all sorts of things to help a kid. “Did Prowl go too?” Grimlock nodded. “Well, we’re not exactly stealthy. Let’s let Silverbolt and Prowl handle this.”

Boat:

Sari was trying to think of how to get out of this situation. She’d always been afraid of returning to Detroit, but she’d never imagined anything like this. Why would someone threaten a small child just to force her into falling him? To make matters worse, she was sure the man doing this had to be some sort of professional. She’d been looking for an opening to knock him out and get Nancy out of there, but she couldn’t find anything. He even made her drive the boat so he wouldn’t have to let go of the gun or the girl.

On a side note, Sari was trying to figure out how she knew how to drive a boat. She’d never driven anything what with living in the wild since she was six.

As they pulled up to the docks, Hector forced Sari off first as he carefully climbed out with Nancy.

Sari carefully pulled her mask over her face. She really didn’t want to be recognized.

“Into the car,” demanded the man.

Sari stared at the car. “You couldn’t find something that stuck out more?”

Hector glared at the car. “Believe me; I would’ve preferred any other vehicle.”

As he said that, the doors opened. Sari’s eye narrowed as she realized it was empty. “You want me to get into a Transformer I don’t know?”

“Just do it. Get in the driver’s seat.”

Sari groaned. This was not gonna be pleasant. She carefully climbed into the driver’s seat. She really hoped that whoever this was didn’t care about her clothes. “So, who’s driving?” asked Sari.

“I am,” said the car.

“Well, obviously.” Sari had no idea how to drive a car. “I mean who are you?”

“Lockdown.”

Sari bit back a curse. That was the bounty hunter that had nearly killed the Autobots. Could things get any worse?

Elsewhere:

Oil Slick did not have flight capabilities. Oil Slick was designed to be stealthy. Stealth was difficult when you were making as much noise as a seeker normally made. To maintain some semblance of stealth, he’d scanned a motorcycle with four tires and changed his alt mode shortly after entering the city.

Of course, it was difficult to maintain stealth when you’ve got something like Spittor running about next to you. “Stop eating everything that catches your optic. It’s slowing you down.”

Spittor let out a loud burp.

As Oil Slick wondered if he was going to have to worry about Spittor getting indigestion, he noticed something barreling down the perpendicular street and braked to avoid getting hit by it. Spittor wasn’t paying nearly as much attention to his surroundings and was hit by it.

‘It’ turned out to be Silverbolt, who growled at the Decepticon before him. Spittor reacted how he usually did to something unfamiliar: He tried to eat it, shooting his tentacles at Silverbolt.

They wrapped around Silverbolt. Silverbolt transformed to his robot mode, grabbed Spittor’s tentacles, and swinging him around into the ground.

While Silverbolt was distracted by Spittor, Oil Slick snuck by. Much as he would love to have a look at whatever that was, he had more important things to be doing right now.

Sumdac Systems:

“This is the place?” asked Starscream. “Gotta admit that it’s the most important looking building in town, but what floor is it on?”

Cyclonus flew into a seemingly random spot on the tower. “You can’t just choose a spot at random!” screamed Starscream

Blitzwing laughed. “I like random!” He flew into another random spot on the tower.

Which left Starscream alone with Blackout. He groaned. “You go get Cyclonus.” Starscream did not want to get anywhere near that bot. “I’ll get Blitzwing.”

Where did they go? Blitzwing crashed into a bunch of offices.

Cyclonus crashed into Megatron’s room. Megatron raised an optical ridge. “Well, you’re not who I was expecting.” Megatron went over his files to see if this was a bot who was dangerous to him.

Oh, it was that one that had popped up out of nowhere. Cyclonus didn’t have enough of a personality to care about Megatron one way or another. Instead, he just stood there.  
Then Blackout crashed through the wall. He stopped when he saw the head. He stared, obviously confused while he tried to gather his thoughts…which was always difficult, even when he wasn’t looking at something that probably shouldn’t be possible “Megatron?”

Megatron vented a sigh. This one wasn’t smart enough to help him unless he wanted to commit suicide, something Megatron would never consider an option.

Autobot ship:

Wheeljack spread his arms. “Viola! A blueprint for a particle accelerator!”

“Why would we even need a particle accelerator?” asked Bumblebee, eyeing the board.

Wheeljack shrugged. “No idea, but if we do, we’ll know how to build one!”

_“This is Prowl! Decepticons are in the city! I repeat! Decepticons are in the city!”_

Bumblebee and Wheeljack shared horrified looks before dashing out of Wheeljack’s workshop.

Dinobot Island:

“Well, scrap. Decepticons in the pural? So far we’ve barely been able to fight one!” Flareup frowned. The only reason they’d beaten Megatron was because they’d been extraordinarily lucky. Starscream was beaten by Silverbolt…Who was probably in the city right now.

Wait a minute. What were the chances of Sari getting kidnapped on the same solar cycle that Decepticons decided to show up in the city? That was just too much of a coincidence. And wasn’t one of those Decepticons from the last scuffle aiming to get his servos on Sari specifically?

Sari’s abduction suddenly looked even more problematic than before. But what could they do? There were three Decepticons they knew about that could be there, and that was only if more Decepticons hadn’t arrived. Flareup wasn’t sure if it was possible for them to fight that many Decepticons and win. They were a bit lacking in the power depart-

Flareup’s optics went to the Dinobots, who were noticeably grumpy and irritable due to the rest of their family running off. She smirked. “Oh boys…It looks like there’s been a change in plans.”

Sumdac Towers:

Sari stared up at the tower. “Can’t say I’m sorry to see it half destroyed. I hope Powell didn’t have insurance.”

Hector cursed as he realized they wouldn’t be able to use the elevator or stairs. He looked at Lockdown.

“I did what I was paid to do,” said the bounty hunter. He rolled away. Sari wasn’t sure why he wasn’t sticking around for whatever was going to transpire, but she wasn’t going to complain. One less Con to worry about…At least she thought it was a Con.

And that was when a motorcycle drove up to them. If it weren’t for the fact there was no rider, Sari would have called it a pretty sweet ride. Instead, she groaned at the fact that it was already transforming. He smirked at them. “Well, this is an interesting scene.”

Hector sighed. “We’re supposed to be up there.”

Oil Slick raised an optic ridge before snorting at what his scan told him. “A cerebro shell modified to affect organic life forms. I’ll have to remember to ask Megatron how he pulled that off.”

Sari’s eyes widened in horror. “Megatron’s here?”

“That’s right.” Oil Slick studied her for a minute. “Does she have any weapons on her besides that spear?”  
“She has blasters and retractable blades in her arms,” answered Hector.

“I see…Keep doing what you’re doing.” Oil Slick quickly stuck the palms of Sari’s hands to her chest with an adhesive that was strong enough to hold them in place. Oil Slick grinned before picking up Sari in one servo and Hector, Nancy, and Soundwave in the other.

Streets:

Silverbolt panted as he dropped the leg he’d just torn off Spittor. Spittor had been thrashed quite thoroughly and was playing dead to avoid losing any more limbs.

This didn’t work as Silverbolt transformed back to beast mode and ripped off Spittor’s other leg. The last thing that he needed was a Decepticon getting in his way while he was rescuing Sari. He dropped the limb and continued following the familiar scent of his child.

Sumdac Systems:

“Ugh, this place is crawling with squishy organics,” muttered Starscream as he entered the room Cyclonus had crashed into. “What are they all supposed to be…” He trailed off as he saw what was in the room. “Megatron?!”

Megatron looked towards the two new bots. “Starscream, Blitzwing.”

Icy Blitzwing raised an optic ridge. “So Lugnut was hearing Megatron after all.” He switched to Random. “Have you lost weight?”

Starscream snickered. This was great! How often did he get the chance to see Megatron like this? Never! “My, those Autobots did quite the number on you.”

“Believe me, the one responsible for this will pay with his life,” said Megatron, narrowing his functional optic.

Starscream grinned. Maybe he could turn this around in his favor.

*Crash!*

“My liege!” Lugnut ran over to Megatron and started prostrating himself. “I am not worthy! I am not worthy!” He paused. “I brought your body.”

Starscream stared at the mess of twisted metal. “You actually plan on salvaging this slag? It looks like someone tried to eat it!”

“It just needs some buffing and it’ll be as good as new,” said Random, rubbing off some of the grime covering Megatron’s body.

Starscream eyed the twisted metal. The fact that the spark was still functioning could probably be considered a miracle of sorts. It wouldn’t be too difficult to extinguish the spark and make it look like an accident.

And that was when Oil Slick walked in through the hole with his hostages/compatriots. “Hello. Nice to see you’re alive and well Megatron,” greeted Oil Slick, completely unfazed by Megatron’s condition. “The locals appear to be amassing some sort of army down below. Thought you’d like to know.” Blackout jumped out the hole to the ground down below. Oil Slick glanced at Megatron’s body. “So, what exactly did you want me to do? Even if I was a trained medic, I don’t think I could use the patch to reattach you to your body.” ‘Especially in that state’ went unsaid.

“You’ll be using the patch to connect me to the hybrid,” explained Megatron.

Oil Slick shrugged as he put down Hector, Nancy, and Soundwave. “That could be tricky.”

Starscream made a face. “You want to be patched to organic?”

“Half organic,” corrected Megatron. He let that sink in as a look of disgust blossomed on Starscream’s face.

“How does something like that even happen?!” screeched Starscream.

Blitzwing giggled. “Well, when a bot and organic love each other very much-”

“Stop talking!” screeched Starscream as he leapt at Blitzwing.

Oil Slick ignored the fight behind him as he put Sari on the ground and ran his clawed servo down the back of Sari’s neck lightly enough not to damage her spinal cord, but hard enough that he could peel back her skin. “Good thing I’ve done this with smaller bots. Just give me a moment to make a modification.” He did something with the cable to change the plug size on one end so that it was much smaller and more compact. He studied Sari’s skull. “Fortunately, her physiology isn’t too different.” He snapped the small end into a port near the base of Sari’s skull. As he went over to plug the other end into a port at the base of Megatron’s head, Sari rolled to her feet and shook her head to try and remove the device. “Any reason you want to be patched to this one in particular?”

“She absorbed enough Allspark energy to give drones sparks. It should be able to repair my body as well,” explained Megatron

Sari did not understand what this meant and didn’t get a chance to think about it before she felt an intense pain erupt in her body as it felt like everything in her body was being drained out the back of her neck.

As Sari was going through the most painful experience of her life, Megatron could feel the energy from the Allspark flooding his circuits. Metal was cannibalized from the surrounding area as his cables sought out his spark and reconnected with his body. The room was ripped apart as the cables retracted and the body started repairing as well. Megatron could finally, finally feel and move his servos.

As the light faded, Megatron looked his body over. He appeared to have been reformatted for some reason, possibly due to being in stasis for so long. His energy level was at 100%. The energy that hadn’t been used in his repairs must have been transferred to his systems to make up for not consuming any form of energon in the past 58 solar cycles.

Somehow, an incredibly disoriented Sari had ended up in his left servo. Megatron yanked the cortical psychic patch out of Sari’s neck port, eliciting a pained yelp, before removing it from his own port.

“All hail Megatron!” shouted Lugnut.

Down below, a very odd standoff was going on. Blackout had taken out the military vehicles without much of a problem. They weren’t built to take on a Cybertronian. That wasn’t what was causing the standoff.

Blackout tilted his head as he stared at the strange creature. It was organic and big and was covered in energon that was making it faintly glow pink. He wasn’t sure what to make of it. He wondered where the energon came from. Organics don’t eat energon, do they?

Silverbolt was pacing in front of Blackout restlessly, growling, teeth bared, and hackles raised. He was quite a sight to see, and it was obvious he’d jump Blackout if he could get an opportunity to do so, but it was also obvious that Blackout was built like a tank…by Transformer standards. Silverbolt couldn’t see any weak points that he could take advantage off, but he could see the Con could fly, which meant trying to get past him wouldn’t work.

Prowl was staying back in his alt mode with his hologram active, describing the scene to Ratchet. “He can take down an Omega Sentinel?”

_“Yes! Do not engage!”_

Prowl nodded, but he suspected they weren’t going to be able to do that. “And Silverbolt?”

_“What’s he even doing there?!”_

“Sari was kidnapped and-” He was cut off by some cursing. “Ratchet?”

 _“We just passed a Deception that had its servos ripped off,”_ explained Bumblebee. _“It was nasty.”_

“…That was Silverbolt’s work.” Prowl had seen that fight. “Anyway, Sari was kidnapped, and Silverbolt followed her scent here. If you could please hurry so we could get her out of there before the Decepticons do any permanent damage, I’m sure that Silverbolt would appreciate it.” Because there was no way Silverbolt was going to back down. Prowl could tell just by looking at him.

Up above:

Megatron was studying Sari closely. She was still rather out of it, but she was conscious. Time to take care of his next order of business. “Now, I will take my vengeance on the one who put me in such a humiliating position.”

He looked out the hole in the wall with the other Cons. They thought that he was talking about the Autobots. They were expecting him to go down, track down the Autobot repair crew, and wipe them out completely.

Megatron was going to do that, but they weren’t who he’d been talking about. He whirled around and lashed out with his fusion cannon. It crashed through Starscream’s cockpit glass, through his chassis, and into the spark chamber.

Did Starscream think he wouldn’t figure out what had happened? The explosion had happened before he got into the Autobot’s ship. There was no way for the Autobots would have been able to attach anything to his back. The device would have had to have been placed on him before he left the Nemesis. It wasn’t done in the bridge because Lugnut would definitely have alerted him.

Starscream was the only one he’d encountered between then and when he’d departed. Starscream had actually touched Megatron in that spot, claiming to be wishing him luck.

Starscream was a traitor.

Starscream could not be allowed to live.

Before Starscream’s body could even start to gray, Megatron fired his fusion cannon, sending the body flying away. He turned towards the rest of his stunned troops. “Does anybody else have a problem with how I lead?”

Everyone, humans included, shook their heads.

“Good.” Megatron looked down and noticed the standoff between Silverbolt and Blackout. “Now, let’s show these Autobots why it’s foolish to oppose Decepticons, shall we?”

Down below:

Ratchet, Wheeljack, Bumblebee, and Bulkhead (all in vehicle mode) finally arrived. Prowl looked around. “Where’s Flareup?”

“She said she had an idea and would be here as soon as possible,” said Wheeljack. “So…Blackout…Why is Silverbolt fighting him?”

“Technically, they’re not fighting. Silverbolt has been…stalking. Blackout has simply been staring at him the whole time,” explained Prowl.

Blackout did seem rather confused. It appeared that something was not making a connection in his processor.

“Also, it turns out Silverbolt is a Transformer,” said Prowl.

“What?!” The humans still present turned towards the ambulance in confusion. “When did you find this out?!”

“About 20 cycles before Sari was abducted, but I suspect that Flareup found out recently as well.” Maybe Prowl was throwing her under the bus, but he wasn’t exactly happy with her either. 

Bulkhead interrupted Ratchet’s next set of curses. “So, how are we going to fight that guy?”

“With science!” proclaimed Wheeljack. “You guys still have those grenades I gave you?”

Ratchet interrupted his tirade to give Wheeljack a cold look. “You gave them grenades?”

“I only have so much storage room,” explained Wheeljack. “Anyway, if we freeze him with the blue ones and then hit him with the red ones, it should weaken his armor bit by bit. Given, it would be better if we used fire instead of explosives, but you can’t have everything.”

“Gangway!”

That was Flareup. The vehicles briefly turned to see if she was coming before speeding out of the way as the Dinobots stampeded by. Flareup zoomed up shortly behind them, transforming to her robot mode. “I talked the Dinobots into helping us.”

Ratchet ignored the shocked humans as he transformed as well. “Why’d you bring them?! You know how destructive they are!”

“When have we been able to beat a Decepticon without outside help?” asked Flareup.

“She’s got a point there,” said Bumblebee.

“Wait for me!” shouted Wheeljack as he transformed and ran over to them. “I’ve got ice bombs! And smoke bombs!”

“Uh, shouldn’t we try to stop them?” asked Bulkhead.

Bumblebee snorted. “I’m not getting between those two. Look how big they are! I’ll get squashed!”

Ratchet groaned. Why did the fights always end up getting so out of servo?

Up above:

“Those are the bots that attacked us when we first arrived,” shouted Hothead Blitzwing. “I’ll rip them into scrap metal!” He jumped out of the building.

“Those bots don’t have faction symbols,” noted Oil Slick. “But I’m assuming we should consider them adversaries?”

Megatron nodded. “Indeed. Keep them busy, will you? There’s something I need to fetch.” He transformed into his helicopter form, Sari trapped in his cockpit, and flew off in the direction of the lake.

Cyclonus and Lugnut obediently flew down to the ground. Oil Slick took a moment to catalog the robots and had to pause. Didn’t he know that bot?

Wheeljack was panicking quite badly. “Come on! I need someone to help me with Blackout!”

The Dinobots weren’t listening. Grimlock had immediately gone for the biggest opponent: Blackout. His attacks in dino mode hadn’t been working so he’d transformed into robot mode and was trying to hack something off with his sword. He was completely unwilling to listen to Wheeljack.

Blitzwing was fighting Sludge. She’d transformed to her robot mode, but was having a bit of trouble since Blitzwing had the advantage of long range attacks, unlike Sludge, who only had her fists.

Lugnut was fighting Slag. This seemed to be a fairly even match up so far.

Cyclonus and Swoop were engaging in an aerial fight, which was making it difficult to see what was going on up there. Cyclonus had an advantage in speed, but Swoop seemed to be keeping up with him.

“Silverbolt! A little help?” Wheeljack froze as he saw Silverbolt running away from the fight. “Oh come on!”

Snarl snorted next to Wheeljack. “How we beat Dummy?”

“Dummy? You mean Blackout?” Well, Blackout didn’t exactly give off the impression of being intelligent. “It’s actually pretty simple. Hit him with an ice grenade, then hit him with fire, then repeat until his armor has weakened significantly and is brittle enough that we can break through it. So try to keep Grimlock from shattering the ice, okay?”

Snarl nodded and quickly went over to the two to try and keep Grimlock from attacking for a few seconds. “I wonder if I have enough grenades…” muttered Wheeljack

“Wait for us!” shouted Bumblebee, running over to Sludge. Bulkhead decided to help Slag with Lugnut. Prowl had gone after Silverbolt. Ratchet and Flareup…stayed where they were.

Ratchet raised an optic ridge. He’d been expecting Flareup to run over and join in at the first chance. “Why aren’t you helping?”

Flareup pointed up at the half ruined tower. “I thought I saw another bot up there.”

As soon as she said that, a chain and weight wrapped around her wrist and yanked her into a building. Then something went flying by and released a cloud of brown smoke around her. Ratchet’s optics widened. “Flareup!”

Before he could run to check on her, the weight and chain wrapped around his servo and jerked, spinning him around to face its wielder.

Oil Slick was surprised when he saw Ratchet’s face. “You’re that Autobot I ran into when I was testing my cosmic rust!”

“Oil Slick?!” Why did Ratchet keep running into Cons that he knew? Why couldn’t he run into bots that he actually liked? “What did you do to Flareup?!”

Oil Slick shrugged. “Just the newest version of cosmic rust. I need to find a version unaffected by your vaccine.”

Ratchet’s optics widened in shock before narrowing in anger. If Oil Slick thought he was just going to let Flareup deactivate, he had another thing coming.

With Prowl:

“You do realize you’re causing a panic?”

Silverbolt didn’t bother to answer. He was trying to keep up with Megatron, but a combat helicopter was much faster than a wolf, and he was going to lose the warlord before too long. Besides, there were Autobots, Dinobots, and Decepticons fighting in front of Sumdac Systems. That was going to cause a panic anyway, not to mention reveal that this planet had some rather unexpected visitors.

Prowl vented a sigh when he realized Silverbolt wasn’t going to slow down. “I’ll try to catch up to Megatron. If he’s after the Allspark like last time, he’s probably heading for our ship.” With that, he sped off, taking advantage of the sirens on his alt mode to clear the way.

Silverbolt briefly wished that he could still do that before pushing the thought to the back of his mind. Right now, he had to focus on reaching Sari.

Speaking of Sari…

“Why the heck am I still here?” demanded Sari. She finally felt semi-normal and was not happy. She felt like she’d been violated in ways that she hadn’t even imagined were possible. If she wasn’t stuck in Megatron’s cockpit, she’d probably have found her dad and told him of the whole ordeal while crying her eyes out.

However, she was suppressing the urge to do any of this since Megatron was like any other predator and would take advantage of any weakness she showed. “You got your magic repair thing done, and I’m still not sure why you needed me for that. And what was with the kid?”

“Silence,” commanded Megatron.

Sari glared at the control panel. “You kidnapped me and did something that had to be illegal in all sorts of ways! Why should I listen to you?!”

“The only reason you are alive right now is because you show signs of being a Guardian,” Megatron said in a harsh, warning tone. “Whether you will live or not once you’ve located the Allspark will depend on how useful you can be in the future.”

“Are you joking?!” shouted Sari. “I’d rather die than help you guys! Especially after what you just pulled!”

“That can be arranged,” growled Megatron.

Sari huffed. She wasn’t afraid of death. She’d come close to dying plenty of times in the past 10 years. If Megatron thought he could scare her into helping him in any way, he had another thing coming. Sari grunted and kicked the space under the control console. “What sort of glue did that goat guy use? I still can’t move my arms, and I’m starting to lose feeling in them.” The energy flare when Megatron had been repaired actually seemed to have hardened the adhesive. Maybe if she was lucky, she could break it or something.

“Keep that up and your death will be long and painful instead of quick and relatively painless,” threatened Megatron.

“Hey, I’d rather go out fighting than give up with a whimper.” If Megatron was going to kill her, Sari was going to at least annoy him until he did the deed.

Sumdac Systems:

“This is why I hate machines,” muttered Fanzone. For once, the rest of his force shared his sentiments.

After all, they had a bunch of robots waging a war across most of Detroit.

Yeah, the fights had started in front of Sumdac Systems, but they’d rapidly spread all over the place with the exception of the Blackout, Wheeljack, Grimlock, and Snarl fight, and Blackout was making it impossible for any of the police equipment to work.

“Hold him hold him hold him!”

Snarl rammed into Grimlock to keep him from hitting Blackout just as Wheeljack threw a cryo grenade. Blackout grunted as ice covered most of his exterior. It didn’t inhibit his movement so he didn’t bother trying to shake it off. He didn’t bother to dodge when Snarl shot fire at him, melting the ice. Grimlock darted around Snarl and tried to stab Blackout again. His sword, despite being on fire, did not penetrate the armor, and Blackout swatted him away.

Wheeljack took advantage of Grimlock and Blackout’s distraction to throw another cryo grenade. Blackout completely ignored the freezing effect and focused on Snarl, who was shooting fire at him again. As he made to punch Snarl, the Dinobot transformed and used his shield to mitigate most of the force but was still sent flying backwards with a dented shield.

Grimlock roared and charged Blackout, swinging his sword again. Blackout didn’t try to dodge and let it hit him. This time, it actually managed to dent the armor. Blackout only had enough time to look down in confusion before Grimlock managed to actually puncture Blackout’s armor.

“Pull back pull back pull back!”

Snarl managed to pull Grimlock back. This was only successful because Grimlock turned to growl at his brother. An acid grenade hit Blackout in the spot where Grimlock had managed to pierce Blackout’s armor. Blackout let out a yell as he felt pain, something that happened so rarely that he’d never learned how to ignore the sensation. Wheeljack threw a regular grenade at the spot. It seemed to do something as Blackout toppled over, seemingly offline.

Wheeljack vented in relief…And then was face-to-face with Grimlock. “You bomb bot stay out of me Grimlock fight!”

Wheeljack’s optics widened. “But he can take on a bot the size of a building! And you weren’t making a dent on him!”

Grimlock snorted before transforming to his dino mode and running off in a seemingly random direction.

Wheeljack turned to Snarl who was frowning at his dented shield. “I’m gonna try to find Ratchet and Flareup. You…uh, try to find one of the other fights and help them out.” Snarl gave him a look. “I know we don’t really know each other, but this is serious! Your brothers and sister are fighting for their lives, and who knows what sort of casualties there already are!” Snarl turned and started walking in a seemingly random direction. Wheeljack wished he could say it was because Snarl wanted to help, but he just couldn’t tell.

Up above, Nancy giggled. “That was cool! Let’s find another one!”

Hector gave Nancy a look that said he was questioning her sanity. “They could’ve demolished this building!”

Nancy pouted. “It was still cool. What do you think Soundwave?”

“Victory: Autobot. Decepticon victory: Preferable.”

Nancy shrugged. “You can’t win them all.” A mechanical bird suddenly flew in. “Hi Laserbeak! Can we go see another fight?”

Laserbeak responded by picking up Nancy in his talons and flying off with her and Soundwave.

Hector stared after the two before turning. He was going home. This was more than enough alien shenanigans for one lifetime.

With Bumblebee and Sludge and Blitzwing:

“Come on! You haven’t hit me once! You blind or something?!” shouted Bumblebee

Hothead Blitzwing growled. “Stay still you pitiful insect!”

At some point, Bumblebee had decided to insult Blitzwing and had discovered that doing so caused Blitzwing to switch to Hothead. While Hothead was the most violent, he didn’t think straight and keep his cool like Icy and was predictable, unlike Random.

He also tended to attack with single-minded purpose. Because Bumblebee was insulting him so much, Blitzwing was focusing on him to the point that he sometimes forgot about Sludge…like now.

Sludge hit Blitzwing in the face with a flaming punch. Blitzwing grunted and switched to Icy, firing his ice rays at Sludge’s fists. Sludge did a roundhouse kick instead.

Looks like Prowl’s training was paying off.

“And what’s with the faces? You part Quintesson or something?” continued Bumblebee.

Note: Pretty much all Transformers hate Quintessons.

Blitzwing switched to Hotheat. “I will crush you and drink from your helm!”

“You got some weird kinks!” shouted Bumblebee as he dodged the fire blasts.

Sludge had managed to melt the ice enough to break it and jumped onto Blitzwing’s back.

He switched to Random. “Frisky!” He shot into the air and spun in circles until Sludge was sent flying off.

Bumblebee’s optics widened as he watched Sludge fly through the air. “Sludge!”

Blitzwing took advantage of Bumblebee’s distraction to fire several blasts at him, which hit home and knocked the minibot to the ground. Blitzwing switched to Hothead as he landed in front of Bumblebee, grabbed Bumblebee’s helm, and lifted him up to optic level. “Try running now.”

Bumblebee’s optics widened. He was in big trouble now. There was no way he could get out of Blitzwing’s tightening grip, unless…

Bumblebee formed his stingers and pointed them at Blitzwing’s face. Hothead scoffed. Bumblebee had tried shooting his electric stings at him before, and his armor was able to hold up to it no problem. The most he’d felt was some light zapping, annoying but not dangerous.

What Blitzwing wasn’t expecting was for the electrical burst to be several times stronger, strong enough that when it hit his head, it was able to do plenty of damage. Blitzwing reflexively dropped Bumblebee and jerked back.

*Clang!* *Crack!*

And it was compounded by Snarl coming out of nowhere and slamming his shield into Blitzwing’s head. The physical trauma combined with the electrical surge going through his processor was enough to knock him out.

Bumblebee gave Snarl a grateful look. “Thanks, I owe ya one.”

Snarl grunted and hauled Bumblebee to his pedes. “Find Sludge and go home.”

Bumblebee winced and looked at his stingers. They were painful and were refusing to change back to servos. He was sure they were going to be useless until Ratchet was able to replace the destroyed circuits. “Yeah, that sounds good.”

In the air:

Swoop had quickly discovered that real fighting wasn’t as easy as it looked. It was still fun, just sort of annoying. He dodged some strafing from Cyclonus before flying right above him. Swoop transformed and landed right on Cyclonus, planning to rip something off.

Cyclonus transformed and swiped at Swoop with his swords. Swoop jumped off and transformed with a screech. Those swords had managed to cut into his chest. It hurt, but he could still fight.

Cyclonus didn’t care. He responded with a kick to Swoop’s head. Swoop ducked under it before swiping with his claws. Cyclonus dodged without much of a problem. Then he suddenly transformed and shot into the sky. Swoop started following him as quickly as he could.

Cyclonus suddenly flew into the sun. Swoop squinted his eyes in an attempt to locate the other flier. This was a big mistake that Cyclonus had planned on and took advantage of. He flew down and slammed into Swoop, sending him spiraling out of control.

*Wham!*

Swoop crashed into a thankfully evacuated building. Cyclonus flew in after him and brought his twins swords down before Swoop could react. Swoop winced, preparing for the pain.

It never came. The swords stopped short. Swoop stared at Cyclonus in surprise. Cyclonus simply stared at the Dinobot. “I know you.”

“Huh?”

Cyclonus didn’t bother to explain. He just sheathed his swords and flew off.

Swoop was thoroughly confused.

Bulkhead, Slag, and Lugnut:

So far, the fight had mostly consisted of slamming each other with a club, pincers, and wrecking balls. Also some fire. Also Lugnut spouting a lot of…stuff about Megatron…Because he’s really happy that his leader is back.

“And I shall present your sparks to Lord Megatron as war trophies!” Like that.

Bulkhead groaned from where Lugnut had just thrown him into another poor building. Bulkhead was a big guy. It was hard to throw him around. Lugnut was able to throw him around so easily that it was like Bulkhead weighed nothing. That was more than a little disconcerting.

Slag was making it harder to throw him because whenever Lugnut got ready to do that, Slag transformed and either belched a bunch of fire at Lugnut or hit him in the face with a flaming club, depending on his mode.

Bulkhead tried to come up with something that would help them in this fight…and came up with nothing. He really wished someone good with strategy was here, like Prowl or Ratchet…

He decided to try hitting Lugnut yet again at the same time that Slag hit the Con with his tail. Lugnut grunted but wasn’t knocked back even a bit. “Your attacks cannot hope to budge Lugnut!”

A roar came from behind Lugnut. He turned to check what it was and was slapped in the face by another dinosaur tail. It didn’t knock him over like Grimlock wanted, but it did cause a nasty case of whiplash. Grimlock didn’t miss a beat and transformed, swinging his sword into Lugnut.

To everyone’s surprise, this managed to knock Lugnut back and leave a large tear in his armor. Grimlock was the only one who wasn’t surprised, and he immediately transformed again and clamped his jaws around Lugnut’s head. Lugnut spent a moment try to get Grimlock off before deciding his pincers weren’t going to work. He tried kicking Grimlock off, but that wasn’t working either. Lugnut pulled back to use his Punch of Kill Everything.

Bulkhead panicked. He had no idea what that big, red button was, but it looked dangerous. It couldn’t be a good thing to be hit with it. Bulkhead tried to think of something, but he could only come up with one really bad idea.

Oh forget it! Bulkhead was going with the bad idea! He fired his wrecking ball.

The wrecking ball hit the button.

There was a huge explosion.

“What that?” asked Sludge.

“I bet it was Wheeljack,” said Bumblebee. “Let’s see if he’s okay.”

That was the end of that fight. The only fight left in Detroit was the one between Ratchet and Oil Slick.

“Will you stop throwing those things around?!” shouted Ratchet. Oil Slick was throwing several canisters full of various chemical components between physical attacks. Ratchet had already had to clamp several lines and modify several vaccines on the fly.

There was also the collateral damage to worry about. These canisters were eating through the buildings’ supports, and Ratchet still had to worry about the missing Flareup. She’d been hit with cosmic rust, and even with the vaccines he’d given everyone, she needed treatment as soon as possible.

That thought kept distracting him. He pulled up a car to block the weight part of Oil Slick’s strange weapon. The car did its job, but Oil Slick had thrown the sickle part of the weapon while Ratchet was grabbing the car. Ratchet was barely able to move quickly enough to keep from getting his head sliced off.

This mech moved like Prowl. There was a good chance Oil Slick had some sort of ninja training. Too bad Prowl never talked about his past and Ratchet had never paid him any attention when he practiced. That might’ve helped Ratchet come up with some sort of strategy to catch Oil Slick by surprise.

Or not. When Ratchet tried throwing his opponent off by pulling a car towards his back from behind, he did some sort of dodge to the side that didn’t look physically possible.

Ratchet would’ve tried using the EMP generator, but Oil Slick had recognized the hardware and would somehow manage to redirect Ratchet’s aim (usually using his chain) or force him to abort the attempt so he could block an attack.

Ratchet grunted as the weighted end of the chain wrapped around his arm again. He tensed, preparing to be thrown in a seemingly random direction…

“RATCHET!”

Both jumped at the shout and stared at what was heading towards them. Wheeljack was running towards them, waving one of his servos hysterically as his head panels lit up in all sorts of weird colors. “IwaslookingforyouafterIgotawayfromBlackoutandIcouldn’tfindyouandGrimlockandSnarlleftandlookIfoundFlareupandshelooksreallyreallybad.” Wheeljack brought Flareup, who he’d run across, up in front of him.

Oil Slick noted that this batch of cosmic rust hadn’t completely covered Flareup and she was still conscious, though obviously in pain. Either it was a dud batch that wasn’t working like it was supposed to or the vaccines that Ratchet had probably given his crew were slowing it down.

Ratchet noted that Flareup was pointing her gun at them.

Oil Slick’s lower chassis suddenly exploded as Flareup’s gun dropped and she went into stasis. Ratchet took advantage of this to hit Oil Slick with his EMP generator. It probably wasn’t necessary with the amount of energon leaking from the wound, but Ratchet wasn’t going to take any chances.

As soon as Oil Slick dropped to the ground Ratchet unwound the chain still wrapped around his arm and ran over to Flareup and Wheeljack. “Put her down.”

Wheeljack gently did so. “Is this cosmic rust? It looks like cosmic rust.”

Ratchet scanned her to make sure Oil Slick hadn’t been lying. “It’s cosmic rust,” confirmed Ratchet.

“Slaggit!” You knew it was bad when Wheeljack cursed.

Ratchet quickly took out a few chemicals. “You got any ferric chloride?”

“Yeah.” Wheeljack pulled out a jar of brown liquid. “You don’t have anything you can use to treat this in the field?”

“Of course not! Oil Slick is the only Decepticon who uses cosmic rust regularly, and there was no reason for me to think he was in this solar system!”

 _“Ratchet!”_ Ratchet jumped slightly at hearing Prowl’s voice. _“Megatron is in pursuit and the All-”_ Whatever else Prowl was going to say was cut off.

Ratchet could feel his spark sink. “Slaggit.”

Let’s return to our human friend, shall we?

Sari was still struggling to get out of the adhesive. She was starting to feel panic, only it wasn’t her own panic. She wasn’t sure how that worked. Yeah, she was freaking out, but she was managing to stay calm. Plus this was the sort of panic she’d felt as a kid when a bear was heading for her, the type a panic prey felt when it realized it was face to face with a predator.

This was an entirely different situation so Sari wasn’t sure where that feeling was coming from.

*Rip!*

Finally! It had taken off some skin and a part her clothes but her hands were free! Sari quickly transformed her hands to their blaster mode and pointed them at the fake control panel.

Megatron promptly transformed, disorienting Sari and grasping her in his left servo. “Do you want to die?”

Sari rolled her eyes. “No, who does?” Sometimes Sari was too snarky for her own good.

Megatron made an annoyed sound. “Then stop struggling.”

Sari glared at her captor. “You’re just gonna kill me anyway!”

Megatron bit down a snarl. For someone who had been raised in the wild, Sari was unusually perceptive. Or maybe it was because of that. Fighting to survive for so long can have that effect.

Megatron looked down at the lake. The Autobots would come and go from here regularly so it was likely their ship was in the lake. While it was unlikely to have been intentional, it did make locating the vessel difficult. He turned to Sari. “Can you survive underwater?”

Sari gave him a dubious look. “Only as long as I can hold my breath.”

“I suggest you start holding it then.”

Sari took his advice, and it was a good thing she did because that was the only warning Megatron gave her before diving into the lake. She slapped her face mask on, not wanting to risk losing her air due to a surprise. Sari squinted through the water. Those not-her-feelings were starting to become stronger and more urgent.

Megatron studied the underwater environment. There were fish, some coral, rocks, nothing too special, but he did see some orange in the distance. He made his way over to the ship.

It was a mess. No wonder they hadn’t left. They’d barely been able to make any repairs from what he could see. They’d patched the holes he’d made, but those appeared to have been done with whatever they could get their servos on.

Megatron promptly broke through the patches causing the ship to flood again. He turned to Sari. “Now, where is the Allspark?”

“How should I know? I don’t even know what it looks like!”

“The fact that your body is able to store Allspark energy means you must have come into contact with it.” Megatron’s optics narrowed. “I suggest you become more forthcoming.”

“I’m serious!” insisted Sari. “My dad told me about it when he told me about Cybertron, but he didn’t know what it looked like, so I don’t know what it looks like.”

Megatron frowned. He was certain this girl was a Guardian, which would mean that she had a connection to the Allspark that most could only dream of. She seemed to be rather clueless though. Perhaps she was still so new that she didn’t know how to do what he wanted her to do. Megatron didn’t know how the process worked. It could take a longer amount of time than he thought. Or maybe her organic nature was delaying the process. Perhaps he just needed to give her the right encouragement.

He charged his plasma cannon and pointed it at her.

Sari’s eyes widened. She did not want to die! Yeah, her life could be better, but she still wanted that life. The not-her-feeling responded with more panic, acceptance, and then somehow managed to jerk her head downwards.

Megatron followed her gaze to the floor. He frowned and fired a blast at the floor. Megatron noted that this led to a deeper area of the lake and jumped. As he landed on solid ground, he glanced at Sari.

Sari was staring at something that she knew was important but didn’t know why she knew that or why a big chunk of cement could be important in anyway.

Megatron noted that the only thing that seemed out of place in that direction was a rock that didn’t fit in with the others. He blasted it.

Under the layer of cement was a metal of some kind. He made quick work of this remaining layer and was greeted by the sight of the Allspark. He smirked and reached for it.

And that was when Prowl, in his vehicle mode, zoomed by and grabbed the Allspark. Megatron snarled and went after him, tossing Sari to the side. Sari swam for the ship.

Prowl figured that he was going to get impaled again. It would not be surprising at this point. However, he couldn’t just sit back and let Megatron get the Allspark. He hoped Silverbolt caught up soon. Prowl was sure he was going to need the help. For now, he was using his hologram projector to try and throw Megatron off. It didn’t seem to be working.

Perhaps Megatron had remembered the trick from last time.

_“Ratchet!” _Prowl commed. _“Megatron is in pursuit and the All-”_ Prowl was cut off as Megatron swiped at him with one of his swords. Prowl did try to dodge, and he managed to avoid the worst of the damage, but he was damaged enough for the Allspark to be sent flying. Megatron went after it.__

__Prowl transformed to give his injuries a quick look over. There was some energon leaking out of a gash in his side, and his right servo had been cut in two up to the hinge joint._ _

__Before Prowl could consider his next course of action, something utterly surprising caught his optics: The ship. It was still very badly damaged, but the hole visible from his position seemed to be glowing around the edges. Prowl swam over._ _

__The edges were glowing. It looked like the hole was trying to close up. It wasn’t going so well. Prowl looked for anything that might have caused this. “Sari?”_ _

__Sari blinked as she ducked out from under the control panel. Her eyes narrowed when she saw who it was. “What were you doing with something like the Allspark on Earth?!”_ _

__“We were sent flying through a malfunctioning space bridge immediately after finding it,” said Prowl. “Believe me. We never had any plans to hide it on this planet.” He tapped the still glowing edge of the ceiling. “Are you doing this?”_ _

__“I have no idea,” said Sari. She rubbed the back of her neck. “But Megatron did need me to repair his body for some reason.”_ _

__“What do you mean?”_ _

__“Well, it was beat to scrap,” explained Sari. “I’m surprised it could be salvaged for anything!”_ _

__Prowl frowned. Megatron had somehow used Sari to repair his body to full functionality. “Can you do it again?”_ _

__Sari glared at Prowl. “Do you have any idea what he did to me?! I am not going through that again!”_ _

__“I meant the ship,” Prowl explained as calmly as he could. “If you can get it airborne, I might be able to give some air support.”_ _

__Sari paused. “Maybe, but I am not using the same method!”_ _

__Up above:_ _

__Megatron grabbed the Allspark, propelling himself out of the water as he did so. He opened the container easily, looking at the crystal within. It was definitely the Allspark. He picked up the crystal and placed it into his spark chamber. Megatron smirked as he immediately felt its power flowing through him. His short term goal was complete. Now to get back to-_ _

__Before Megatron could complete this thought, something impacted him from behind. Reflexes honed from years of fighting had him reaching back, gripping his attacker as hard as he could, and throwing it forward and over him._ _

__Silverbolt twisted to land on his four feet on a rock and growled at Megatron, his hackles raised and his wings flared. Megatron was not impressed. “I suggest you stand down.” Silverbolt didn’t show any signs of hearing him. Megatron was aware that Silverbolt was intelligent despite his appearance and inability to speak. If he chose to fight, then so be it. Megatron fired his fusion cannon at Silverbolt._ _

__Silverbolt darted to the side before rushing Megatron to try and take a bite out of his knee. Megatron sidestepped and brought his sword down on Silverbolt. Silverbolt managed to dodge and run his wing across Megatron’s arm. Megatron grunted and elbowed him into a rock face. Those wings had actually managed to cut through his armor._ _

__Silverbolt wasn’t able to catch himself and so was disoriented long enough for Megatron to get close and land a punch. Silverbolt was just aware enough to get his head out of the way, but Megatron’s fist hit Silverbolt’s right wing with a sickening crunch. Silverbolt let out a pained yelp._ _

__Silverbolt would not be flying any time soon. He flailed a bit, but Megatron was experienced with flailing animals and knew to avoid Silverbolt’s limbs. Silverbolt suddenly transformed and lashed out with a kick. That was how Megatron discovered that Silverbolt had toes. His toes had talons on them that were even sharper than his wings, and they cut through some of Megatron’s waist armor._ _

__Getting annoyed, Megatron elbowed Silverbolt in the neck. It didn’t matter what species you were, the neck was always a vulnerable spot. Silverbolt’s optics widened in pain, and he made a choking sound. Megatron flew up, throwing Silverbolt away as he did so._ _

__A grappling hook wrapped around Megatron’s servo. He noted that Silverbolt could fire grapping lines from at least one arm right before Silverbolt collided with him again. Megatron snarled as well this time and had to deal with the awkward position to get Silverbolt off him without getting a serious bite or slash wound. He accomplished this by grabbing Silverbolt’s right arm and twisting it sharply so that it broke as well. Silverbolt yelped in pain again, which was enough for Megatron to throw him off. He reached for the grappling line to unwind it from his arm._ _

__The water from the lake erupted as the Autobot ship broke the surface of the lake. Both the bots in the air stared. Silverbolt was just surprised to see a ship come out of the lake. Megatron was caught off guard because he had seen that it definitely shouldn’t be able to fly with all the holes and damage done to it._ _

__“Dad!” Silverbolt’s gaze shot to the ship’s roof where Sari had climbed out. He promptly shot another grappling hook from his left arm at the ship and used it to swing to the roof. He scooped up Sari with his good hand and promptly started sniffing her to make sure she was okay. She hugged him. “I’m so glad to see you.”_ _

__The ship fired at Megatron, who dodged while tossing away the grappling hook that had been stuck on him. How was that thing flying? Megatron’s optics went to Sari. He was proof that she had access to some sort of repairing ability. Could she have figured out how to replicate the effect? If she had, apparently she hadn’t been able to replicate the effect perfectly, and that would cost her._ _

__Megatron started charging his fusion cannon. The Allspark should provide him with enough energy to bring down the ship._ _

__Sari paused as that other presence started trickling images into her mind. “Hey, Dad, help me out?” Silverbolt immediately nodded, not caring what Sari might ask of him._ _

__Before Megatron could fire off his cannon, something impacted his chest where his spark chamber was._ _

__What he saw actually made him freeze. Sari was pressed against his chassis, a bloody grappling line wrapped around her waist and her energy blades sunk into the Allspark...Which was sparking violently…and in his chassis._ _

__Silverbolt yanked Sari back seconds before the Allspark exploded. Silverbolt scrambled to catch Sari and maintain his balance on the top of the ship._ _

__Inside, Prowl was trying to keep the ship airborne, which had proven difficult with his injured arm and the damages the ship still had. It was going to take a miracle to land this thing without crashing it._ _

__Just as he thought that, the ship crashed into something very solid, which stopped the ship and sent Prowl flying out of his seat. Prowl painfully pulled himself to his feet and glanced out the window…There was nothing but rocks. “…Still could be worse.” After all, he hadn’t gotten impaled this time…_ _

__Over in Detroit, the humans that hadn’t evacuated were either trying to figure out what that light was or staring in the direction they’d seen the silent explosion. This included the Autobots and Dinobots._ _

__“He crashed into the mountain!” shouted Ratchet, his face twisted up in rage._ _

__Prowl had somehow managed to crash the ship on the fake volcano on the island the Dino Clan had been living on in such a way that it was now sticking out of the side just above the tree line. Prowl obviously hadn’t meant to, but it had still happened, and Ratchet was not happy about it._ _

__“Well, at least it’s not underwater,” commented Bumblebee. Now he could use his stingers to weld it…once his stingers were working again._ _

__“Them Autobots move in?” asked Slag, who had only recently regained consciousness._ _

__Grimlock, who had some warped panels from the P.O.K.E. but was still able to move, shrugged. “Guess so.”_ _

__Sludge clapped her servos together. “Yay!”_ _

__“So…now what?” asked Bulkhead, who was now missing one of his servos._ _

__Wheeljack glanced at Flareup. Ratchet wouldn’t let anyone else touch her so Wheeljack had ended up carrying her and the cosmic rust antidote that Ratchet had managed to whip up in a drip that was usually used for energon. “Uh, how are we gonna get her to the ship? She kind of needs treatment…like now. It doesn’t look like it’s spreading, but we need scanners to tell for sure.”_ _

__“Just use other building,” said Snarl._ _

__Wheeljack gave him a confused look. “What other building?”_ _

__Snarl shrugged. He was in a bit of a bad mood since his damaged shield was making it pretty much impossible for him to transform. “Other building.”_ _

__“Oh, I actually know what he’s talking about!” said Bulkhead. He couldn’t say that very often. “There’s an old human research facility on the island!” Snarl nodded._ _

__“We need equipment more sophisticated then that!” shouted Ratchet. He was in a very bad mood what with a bunch of Decepticons appearing from seemingly nowhere, running into another bot that was associated with bad war memories, injuries on pretty much everyone, a case of cosmic rust, the Orion crashing into the side of a mountain, and having no idea when he was going to be able to get access to the equipment he needed to fix everyone! “And we can’t go underwater with these injuries unless we want to damage our circuits!”_ _

__“Do you think we could ask for a boat?” asked Bumblebee. “I mean they know about us now, so we can do that, right?”_ _

__“I think that’s a good idea!” agreed Wheeljack._ _

__Ratchet groaned. Why did he have the feeling this was only going to make things more complicated?_ _

__On the ship, Sari and Silverbolt were spread out on their backs, staring at the sky. Sari was mildly displeased to find the bottom half of her wooden mask had broken off, but considering that it had probably protected her from getting another injury she was willing to live with it. She had enough from getting manhandled, the adhesive, and the Allspark explosion. “This is in my top five ‘Worst Days Ever’. What about you?”_ _

__Silverbolt attempted to sign, but discovered that the adrenaline had worn off and he was now feeling all the pain that came from having a broken arm. He decided to just nod in agreement that it had been a bad day._ _

__City:_ _

__Blitzwing came back online suddenly as someone snapped his head back into the correct position. “What the-”_ _

__Strika huffed. “I miss one fight, and you boys manage to screw everything up.”_ _

__Icy Blitzwing looked behind her and noticed a container that Strika had acquired from somewhere and appeared to be dragging around. Inside was a miserable Spittor in pieces and Oil Slick, who looked mildly out of it and was missing part of his abdomen. He appeared to have done some makeshift first aid by slapping some sort of adhesive on the wound to keep from pumping out. “I am assuming things didn’t go as planned?”_ _

__“Not entirely. Megatron is still functioning, but the Allspark was destroyed by the Autobots,” explained Strika._ _

__Blitzwing switched to Hothead. “Slaggit!”_ _

__“Yes, now help me find the others so we can avoid being disassembled by the locals.”_ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _And now Butterflies presents: Questions and Answers with Vector Prime._
> 
> “That chapter was incredibly long,” commented Vector Prime, looking down at the author, who was sitting on his table.
> 
> KHGiggle nodded. “Well, it was a ‘season finale’, and I couldn’t find any good places to stop and split it in two chapters.”
> 
> “…Why are you dressed like that?”
> 
> “So no one recognizes me.”
> 
> Vector gave her an incredulous look. “…It’s a fanfic. No one can see you.”
> 
> “I’m not taking any chances.”
> 
> Vector rolled his optics. “You’re worse than the original Red Alert.”
> 
> “Hey!”
> 
> “Now, we have no guests with us today because no one had any questions to ask,” explained Vector. “I’m perfectly fine with that. It’s less work for me.”
> 
> “You were just complaining about how bored you were,” pointed out KHGiggle.
> 
> “That’s beside the point,” interrupted Vector. “Is there anything to discuss?”
> 
> KHGiggle shrugged. “We literally got no reviews last chapter, so no questions to answer. Wanna just talk about anything that seems odd?”
> 
> “Nancy Witwicky. What sort of child lets herself get taken hostage like that?”
> 
> “In my defense, she is very easily bored. It’s sort of like Light Yagami except she’s naïve and doesn’t know any better.”
> 
> Vector gave KHGiggle a weird look. “Did you just compare Nancy Witwicky to Light Yagami?”
> 
> KHGiggle chuckled. “No, I mean the boredom problem is similar.”
> 
> “I find it hard to believe her parents didn’t notice anything out of the ordinary.”
> 
> “In their defense, Soundwave and his helpers are incredibly sneaky no matter their incarnation,” pointed out KHGiggle.
> 
> “What about Cybertron Soundwave?”
> 
> KHGiggle paused. “Er, I don’t know. I wasn’t able to get past Energon when I tried to watch the Unicron trilogy.”
> 
> Vector sighed. “I’m not surprised. Those series weren’t handled nearly as well as they could’ve been.”
> 
> “Wanna rewrite it for fun?” asked KHGiggle. “It’d be something to do when we have writer’s block.”
> 
> “…Sure. As long as nothing messes up that timeline, I don’t see a problem with that.”
> 
> “Sweet! We can take out the completely pointless episodes!”
> 
> _This has been Questions and Answers with Vector Prime._


	12. Aftermath

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Autobots start the recovery process.

Much to Ratchet’s surprise they actually found someone willing to take them across the lake. While looking around for help, Wheeljack had managed to run into someone who’d offered to ferry them across if they’d explain what had just happened.

Wheeljack was happy to do so and had been talking nonstop since then.

They eventually got over to the island and reached the crashed ship.

“A little to the left.” They stared at the scene. Prowl was standing on the ground. His right servo was hanging by his side with an obvious injury on it and another injury on the right side of his chassis. That wasn’t weird. What was weird was that Silverbolt was trying to climb down the mountain face with only one hand with Sari riding on his back. “A little more.” Prowl appeared to be giving him directions.

“What happened here?!” shouted Ratchet.

Prowl calmly turned. “Sari somehow managed to repair the ship enough that it could start up, and I figured desperate times call for desperate measures.”

Ratchet turned to look at Silverbolt. He raised an optic ridge. “Is that Silverbolt?

“Yes.”

Ratchet stared. There was something alien about Silverbolt’s appearance, but not repulsively so. What had Ratchet concerned was why Silverbolt had never tried to communicate what he was to them. And then there was the matter of his allegiance…There were so many questions that needed to be answered. His optics wandered to Silverbolt’s limp arm and wing. “Why is he trying to climb down with only one servo?”

“Megatron broke the other one along with a wing,” explained Prowl. “He can’t fly right now.”

Ratchet groaned. That was yet another thing he was going to have to worry about repairing, and he didn’t know a slagging thing about organics!

“So…How are we gonna get to the ship?” asked Bumblebee.

Wheeljack stared at Swoop. Swoop stared back. “How much can you carry in your alt mode?” Swoop shrugged.

Well, it was something. Maybe they can talk Silverbolt into helping once his wing was repaired.

Speaking of which, Silverbolt had finally reached solid ground. He let out a short sigh and placed Sari on the ground. The Autobots started slightly when they noticed that there was visible circuitry where her skin had come off in small patches. Sari noticed and groaned. “I’m techno-organic like my dad.”

"Well, what do you know? Everyone here’s Cybertronian,” commented Wheeljack. “What’re the chances of that?”

Nobody could bring themselves to think about this.

Eventually, Ratchet, Wheeljack, and Swoop got Flareup, Prowl, and Bumblebee into the ship. Ratchet instructed Prowl and Bumblebee not to do anything strenuous, told Wheeljack to start constructing a new servo for Bulkhead, and told Bulkhead to find an organic medic since Ratchet knew nothing about organic medicine.

Sari decided to help with that last one since the doctor was for her dad. She located some of her spare clothes, put on her mask, and went with Bulkhead.

“Why can’t Ratchet just remove your dad’s armor and weld his skeleton back together?” asked Bulkhead.

Sari snorted. “It doesn’t work that way with organic life forms, even if they’re only partially organic. We’ve got all sorts of stuff between our skin and bones that we need, like muscle and blood vessels and nerves. If Ratchet tried to fix Dad the way he does a normal bot, he’d probably cause permanent damage. Anyway, most broken bones can be fixed by putting the bones in the right position and using a plaster cast to hold them in place. That way they can heal on their own without any problems. They do sometimes need to go in and perform surgery to keep the bones in place though.” Sari winced. “I hope Dad won’t have to have surgery. I have no idea how you’d perform surgery on a techno-organic.”

“So you guys are both techno-organics?” asked Bulkhead.

Sari nodded. “We both have sparks and can transform. Mostly”

“Wow, you’re really lucky,” said Bulkhead.

Sari nodded solemnly. “Yeah, I know.”

Eventually, they did find a doctor of sorts. Sari glanced at the veterinarian they’d run across. “I’m surprised you stayed in the city with all the killer robots running around.”

The man sighed and stared out the window for a moment. “Yes, well, my mom lives in a retirement home, and I was worried about her.”

“What’s a retirement home?” asked Bulkhead.

“It’s a place for senior citizens who can’t live on their own or don’t have anyone to take care of them,” explained Sari.

“But you’re a doctor,” said Bulkhead, confusion evident in his voice. “Why can’t you take care of her?”

The vet coughed. “Veterinarians treat animals not humans, and my mother…has a mental condition. She needs special care that I can’t provide.” He turned to Sari. “And you said your father…”

“He is a giant wolf-eagle-robot hybrid,” explained Sari.

“Ratchet said he’s never had to treat an organic before and wanted some help,” explained Bulkhead.

“And what sort of injuries did he have?” asked the vet.

Sari thought a moment. “His right wing and arm are broken. He had some cuts and slashes. He used a couple of grappling hooks that had to break through the skin. That’s all I could tell. He’s mute so I couldn’t really ask him how he felt.”

The vet nodded. “You don’t have another way of communication?”

“We usually use sign language, but he needs both hands for that. He can write, but Ratchet was making him lie down.”

The vet thought a moment. “Well, I’m definitely going to need a lot of plaster and cloth for the broken bones, and something waterproof to cover them with so they won’t get wet. Some thread and a needle might be a good idea for the lacerations, but depending on how thick his skin is, we might need something else, like staples. Some water and a container to boil it in and something I can use to force the water into his injuries with enough force to clear the debris without damaging the tissue. A saline solution would be better, but those come pre-packaged, and I don’t know how to make it myself. Antibiotics would probably be a good idea since if he’s gone untreated so far he probably has gotten debris and bacteria into his wounds, and we don’t want infection to set in. An X-Ray would be nice. And something to shave off any fur on his broken arm.”

“They have a scanner that should work,” said Sari. “…If Ratchet managed to get it out of the ship.”

“I’ll let the others know,” said Bulkhead. “Maybe the Dinobots can find that stuff.”

Sari groaned. “I hope they stay out of trouble.”

After another half hour, they reached the island and managed to find where the group had set up camp.

The only ones there were Silverbolt and Wheeljack. Wheeljack looked like he was attempting to build some kind of shelter. Silverbolt was curled up on his left side and licking at a wound on his right arm where his grappling hook had been fired. He looked up and eyed the new arrival.

The vet just stared.

“Hi guys. This is Dr. Jackson Darby. He’s a veterinarian,” explained Sari. “He said he’d look Dad over and see if he could do anything.”

Dr. Darby kept staring.

“Nice to meet you Jack! Can I call you Jack?” Dr. Darby nodded at Wheeljack’s request. “Great! We can’t call you Jackie though. That’s one of my nicknames, and that would get confusing real quick.”

“How’s it going with the replacement parts?” asked Bulkhead.

“Great. I’ve constructed replacement circuits for Bumblebee a couple of times before so I already finished that. I just thought I’d try and set up something to keep rain off Silverbolt until you got back. I need to get some measurements before I start constructing your replacement servo,” explained Wheeljack.

“Okay.” Bulkhead held out his arms. He really wanted that repaired. It never occurred to him how hard it was to get around with only one servo.

Dr. Darby had already made his way over to Silverbolt. He looked Silverbolt over. Dr. Darby pointed at the large sun on Silverbolt’s chest. “Is that a tattoo?” Silverbolt nodded. “How did you even get a tattoo?” Silverbolt gave him an odd look. “…Never mind. That’s probably not important.” He reached for Silverbolt’s right arm but paused. “May I?” Silverbolt nodded hesitantly. Dr. Darby carefully pressed down on Silverbolt’s arm. Silverbolt suddenly jerked back, growling. “Well, it feels broken. Sari and Bulkhead said you guys had scanners. Have you gotten a look at his arm with one of those?”

“Not yet. Ratchet was more concerned about Flareup since her injuries were life threatening,” explained Wheeljack as he continued measuring Bulkhead’s servos. “Could you treat the other injuries until then?”

Dr. Darby glanced at the injuries on Silverbolt’s arms. “Yeah, I won’t be able to do anything until the supplies get here anyway.” Jack gave Silverbolt a nervous look as he relaxed and allowed his arm to be examined some more. “You act like a wild animal. Have you ever been this badly injured before?” Silverbolt shook his head. Dr. Darby fingered an odd puncture wound on the back of one of Silverbolt’s arms. “You shot grappling hooks out of these, right? They look sort of like puncture wounds, except the injury came from inside instead of outside. There’s some scarring around the area too, so I’m guessing you’ve used these before.” Silverbolt nodded.

“Maybe you should wait for Ratchet’s opinion before you treat those,” suggested Sari, her protectiveness over her father bleeding through.

Dr. Darby nodded. “Yes, that would be a good idea, especially since I’m going to have to cover one of them when I set his broken arm. If I miss something, I’ll have to remove the cast or it’ll fester until the cast comes off.”

“…You and Ratchet are gonna get along just fine,” commented Wheeljack.

Up above:

Flareup groaned as her optics onlined. She felt like scrap. The first thing she saw was Ratchet and Swoop. Huh, that was something she never expected to wake up to. “What the-Wha?”

Ratchet vented. “Finally…What is the last thing you remember?”

“Getting thrown into a building…and feeling…fuzzy…Why do I itch? And feel like scrap?”

“You got hit by Oil Slick’s cosmic rust,” explained Ratchet.

Flareup groaned. “No wonder I feel like scrap.”

“Look better now,” said Swoop poking at Flareup’s forehead.

Ratchet grabbed the offending servo. “Don’t do that.” Flareup mentally agreed. She had enough of a processor ache already.

Swoop nodded and frowned. “Help Grandpa now?”

“Not until the supplies arrive,” said Ratchet. The only thing he could do was maybe staple lacerations closed with a techno-organic.

Primus, he didn’t even know what to think about those two. Did he leave them on their own, try to get them to join, report them to Cybertron? They’d found so many things that shouldn’t be possible on this planet…

“Ratchet, stop worrying,” said Prowl. This simply caused Ratchet to sanitize his servos and come over to him. “Those two have had to adapt to extreme changes before. I’m sure they can do so again.”

“Yeah, yeah, now shut up and let me treat something that I’m actually familiar with.” Ratchet started examining the interior circuitry of Prowl’s injured arm. “The cut was clean, but the water might have caused some damage.”

Prowl winced. “I can handle using only one servo.” He paused as Swoop settled down next to them and stared at what Ratchet was doing. “It’s not as bad as last time.”  
Ratchet huffed at Prowl’s claims. It was still a bad injury that needed treatment ASAP. Prowl should know that. “Why are you so against staying in the med bay?”

Prowl internally winced at getting caught. “I think we already established that whatever is causing my glitch is less effective when I’m outside the ship.”

“It can’t be that simple,” argued Ratchet. “That suggests there’s some sort of difference between the two environments. I just need to figure out what that is.”

“I like being outside more than inside,” commented Prowl.

Ratchet snorted. “That’s just convenient.” Prowl being a tree hugger was a surprising discovery, but it wasn’t completely unheard of. Ratchet had once met a soldier that collected and bred various plant species. He hadn’t been a very popular mech. “We need to figure out what’s causing it before we leave.”

Prowl shrugged. “We’re not leaving anytime soon…” Megatron had undone most of the repairs they’d managed to make, and the ship was now sticking out of a mountain. Barring another miracle, the Orion wasn’t going to fly any time soon.

Ratchet’s com link crackled to life. _“The Dinobots are back with supplies.”_

“Right, I’ll be there in a klik.” Ratchet wrapped some foil around Prowl’s servo injury and the injury in his side. “Do me a favor and keep an optic on Bumblebee and Flareup while Swoop flies me down.”

Prowl looked at Flareup, who looked like she was about to slip back into recharge. Bumblebee had gone to his room since there were only two medical berths, but he’d muttered something about recharging at the time. “I’ll just…contact you if there are any complications.”

A few minutes later, Ratchet and Swoop were back on solid ground and discovered that the Dinobots had decided to help out by heating up a very large container full of boiling water while Sari petted them with a concerned frown on her face. “Okay, okay, that’s enough!” The Dinobots stopped. Dr. Darby checked the water. “It should be clean, but it needs to cool down.” He paused when he noticed Ratchet had reached him. “Hi, you’re the medic?”

“Yeah, you the human medic?”

“Actually, I’m a veterinarian,” corrected Dr. Darby, “but that should work better in this case since he has a broken wing. A human medic wouldn’t know how to set that.”

Ratchet nodded. “Good.”

“So, have you done any scans?” asked Dr. Darby. “I need to know the break patterns before I set the bones.”

Ratchet frowned. He’d tried scanning Silverbolt and Sari already, but he hadn’t gotten any useful information because their organic components were throwing the scanner off. He couldn’t even pick up the signals that all living Transformers were supposed to give off! “They’re hard to read.” He was cut off when Wheeljack tossed him a component. “What’s this?”

“I thought we might need a way to scan organics so I researched how they usually scan their injured and put something together,” explained Wheeljack. “I don’t know how well it’ll work, but it’s worth a try.”

Ratchet nodded. “Go get a datapad for me to put these on.” Swoop nodded and hurried off. Ratchet turned to Silverbolt. “Can you stand?”

Silverbolt climbed to his feet, wobbling a bit. His balance had been thrown off by his injuries.

A few minutes later, Ratchet and Dr. Darby were looked at the scans. “It looks like he might have a concussion, so you’ll need to keep him from sleeping for a couple of days.”

“Shouldn’t be too hard. These are the locations where the grappling hooks are stored.”

“They look sort of like cavities. The injury isn’t as bad as I thought there. I’ll just need to make sure they’re covered and kept dry. I’m more worried about the blood that’s probably in the cavity. It could encourage bacterial growth so I’d like to flush it with some alcohol if you could find some. The bones aren’t broken in a way I’ve seen before.”

“Same here. It’s made of the same stuff as our supporting structures, but the structure is different. It’s not solid.”

“The structure is pretty similar to our bones. The spaces are sort of for absorbing shock so that it can take more damage than it would be able to take otherwise. The breaks are clean. I think I can set them without surgery. I’ll have to shave his broken arm before I put the cast on, otherwise it’ll be difficult to get off, more painful too. The lacerations aren’t too bad. One reached the muscle layer, but if he’s still moving it shouldn’t be too severe. Best to let him rest while his body heals though. You see anything on your end?”

“It’s still difficult to get a good image of his mechanical components. I’ll have to get Wheeljack try to improve this.” This invention was actually pretty useful even if it was only needed for two bots. “Wait a klik…” He stared at one part of the image. “That’s not symmetrical.”

Dr. Darby nodded. “That’s normal with parts the abdomen; heart’s on the left side, one liver on the right, slightly smaller left lung.”

“This is in his neck.” Ratchet stared at image for a good few moments before it finally clicked. He stared in disbelief at the image before staring at Silverbolt. “You have got to be kidding me.” He walked over. “Hold still.” He grabbed hold of Silverbolt’s neck and pushed.

There was an odd snapping sound and Silverbolt jerked back. “Ah!” He froze, bringing his good arm up to his throat. “I…You…How?”

“Are you serious?” Sari asked incredulously. “That’s all we had to do to fix his voice?”

“Yeah, looks like something weakened the structure that holds the vocalizer in place and then knocked it loose,” explained Ratchet, annoyed that he hadn’t known to do that earlier. “Gonna have to figure out how to keep it from coming loose again…”

Silverbolt just nodded, apparently in a state of shock.

“It looks like his skin is pretty thick,” continued Dr. Darby. “I don’t think a thread and needle is going to work. Do you guys have staples?”

Ratchet nodded. “Yeah, used them on an injury he got before.”

“Can you boil them in some more water, and could someone find a razor?” requested Dr. Darby. “We could probably get by without shaving with the lacerations, but I’d like to remove hair from the area around the reverse puncture wounds. We definitely need to remove the fur from the right arm before we put the cast on.”

“We can make do. What about pain?” asked Ratchet. “I’m worried how he’d react to an EMP pulse like I’d normally use since he has organic brain matter.”

Dr. Darby nodded. “Yeah, I don’t think the normal anesthesia’s gonna work, and I don’t think these are two things that can be combined.”

“Agreed.”

“Rat…chet…”

Ratchet paused and looked at Silverbolt. His voice was incredibly raspy and had a strange accent to it that Ratchet couldn’t identify. It wasn’t a pleasant voice, likely due to disuse. “Yeah?”

“Thank you.”

Ratchet immediately shrugged it off. “Don’t mention it.” It would have been stupid and dangerous to leave his vocalizer out of place.

“I’ve never had a patient that could talk before,” commented Dr. Darby. “Tell me if you feel any discomfort.”

Silverbolt felt a lot of discomfort, but didn’t voice it. Both medics could tell, and both berated him for it. Then Dr. Darby started talking about how wild animals often would hide their pain and injuries because they could get killed otherwise and mused that Silverbolt was doing the same thing instinctually.

Swoop kept leaning in to see what they were doing, which led to Dr. Darby trying to explain what sort of procedures the two were performing. How much Swoop understood was debatable.

Once Silverbolt had been patched up as well as he could be, Dr. Darby turned his attention to Sari. “Okay, what about you?”

Sari blinked. “You’re not a human doctor.”

“Yeah, but you’re injured too.”

Sari looked at the exposed circuitry. “It’s fine.”

She was promptly hit (very carefully) over the head by Ratchet. “Exposed circuitry is always something that needs to be treated. Now stay still and let me scan you.”

“I’ve survived way worse than this,” protested Sari. “I’m perfectly fine.”

“They’ll leave scars,” pointed out Dr. Darby.

“I’ve already got scars.”

Dr. Darby frowned as he looked her over. There were several scars on her body, and there was a particularly large one on Sari’s side. It was obvious that she’d had a rough life, one that had forced her to become strong. “…At least let us bandage you.”

It took some doing, but the two doctors eventually talked Sari into getting bandaged up. Ratchet still had a lot of work ahead of him. He had to monitor Flareup for the next few solar cycles, repair (possibly replace) Prowl’s arm, replace Bumblebee’s damaged circuits, replace Bulkhead’s servo, deal with the various injuries everyone (including himself) had accumulated, and possibly play peacemaker with the humans.

But it looked like everyone was going to be okay, and Ratchet couldn’t express how relieved he was to realize that.

The humans…were having a pretty rough time themselves.

Powell slammed his hands down on the table. “Sumdac Systems is not responsible for these damages!”

Mayor Edsel frowned at Powell. The mayor’s secretary coughed. “It’s not that simple. It is unknown how long this…What was he called?”

“Megatron,” said Fanzone. The guy who’d given the bots a ride was actually an off duty police officer, and he’d filled everyone in on the situation. “Supposed to be the leader of the ‘Deception-cons’ or something like that.”

“It is unknown how long Megatron was housed in the Sumdac Industries headquarters or the extent of his influence on the robotics produced by your company,” continued the secretary. “We are willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, but there are other issues that need to be dealt with. Your various robot lines have all malfunctioned to the point that they are no longer functional, which has led to deaths in those with artificial organs, which will lead to lawsuits. Then there are the jobs that only robots have performed for years. Older models from before 2158 still function for some reason, but there are very few of those that are still functional. The ones that are functional are in need of extensive maintenance so they are not a viable, long-term solution. Until a solution is found, human workers will have to be hired instead.”

“Good. Never did like giving jobs to robots,” said Fanzone. “I need to find some more officers too.” The officers with cybernetic enhancements, which was quite a high percentage, were currently off the force due to their parts not working.

“In Mr. Powell’s defense, we are dealing with a highly advanced extraterrestrial race,” said Hector. “It’s not surprising that he was able to hack into our systems. We are currently having our scientists investigate the nonfunctional robots to see if he made any changes to their systems or programming for his own reasons. As soon as the reason for the mass malfunction is found, the engineers will correct the problem and start producing new working robots.”

Mayor Edsel frowned at Powell and Hector. “Do you have a timeline?” asked the secretary.

“Not yet,” said Powell. “But I have my best scientists working on it. I’m quite certain they’ll find a solution in no time.”

Mayor Edsel nodded. “We also have extensive damages to repair,” continued the secretary. “The repairs will be quite expensive, but the Autobots have offered to assist in repairs, and we’ve taken that offer.”

“What? Why?” asked Powell.

“They’re a repair crew,” explained Fanzone. “They just caught the interest of trained soldiers who wanted something they had and followed them here.” He shrugged. “I figured if they were gonna lie, they’d try to make themselves sound impressive.”

Mayor Edsel nodded and sighed. “We’re going to need all the help we can get,” continued the secretary. “And they likely have more experience than any of the construction workers on payroll.”

“How do we know we can trust them?” asked Powell.

“At the moment, the federal government has decided to allow them to stay since we wouldn’t be able to do anything to defend ourselves against their level of technology. The fact that the Autobots haven’t attempted this yet, suggests that they come in peace,” explained the secretary. “And if they don’t, it would be in our best interests to cooperate with them to lessen the amount of damage.” Mayor Edsel gestured for a thick sheaf of papers. “Now, about the damage costs. We will be receiving aid, but funds will still be needed to fully repair all of the damage…”

Later:

“And that was the gist of the meeting,” muttered Hector. “Weren’t able to figure out much except that they didn’t have much of a choice except to trust the Autobots. Not really anything interesting or useful from what I could tell.”

Megatron grunted from where he was checking over a computer.

“Why are you keeping this little pest?” asked Strika. “He does not seem useful.”

“Humans occasionally come up with useful ideas.” Megatron had had a lot of spare time during the ten years he’d been in the lab. He’d done some research. The ideas weren’t up to Cybertronian standards, but they were in need of supplies, and it would be faster to get them here, especially considering it usually took a long time to reach Earth. Hopefully he’d be able to find a way around that. “I’d like an inside man in case they manage to come up with anything to speed up our plans. In addition, he’s in a position where he’s more likely to hear information on the Autobots’ movements.”

Hector nodded, but didn’t try to keep from glaring. While the cerebro shell was still in place and could control him, Megatron could no longer hear his thoughts. It seemed like a poor trade in his opinion.

Lugnut stepped forward. “And what do you plan to do now, glorious Megatron?”

Megatron paused and took a quick look at his troops. “…Perhaps a few more solar cycles of recovery first.”

He was willing to sit back and let things play out when necessary. If there was one thing he’d picked up in his ‘prison’ it was patience.

Elsewhere:

“You want to leave?” asked Nancy. “But why?”

“Current location: unsafe,” explained Soundwave as he looked for and gathered up some simple supplies. “Decepticon presence: Now known to world at large. Additional: More space required for future projects.”

“What kind of projects?” asked Nancy.

“Espionage. Scout construction. Construction of new body.”

“Why do you need a new body?”

“Scale: Previously unknown. Modifications: Necessary for long term interaction.”

“They were pretty big,” agreed Nancy. “Especially that black one.”

Soundwave nodded. Blackout had been huge, even by Decepticon standards. “Megatron: Requested continued surveillance. Soundwave: Will not be will not be taken seriously in current form.”

Nancy tilted her head. “You mean like how adults don’t listen to me because I’m just a kid?”

Soundwave paused. “Sort of.”

Nancy glanced at Ravage and Laserbeak, who were also gathering supplies. They were the only four in the house. “Can I go with you?”

That actually caught Soundwave off guard. “What?”

“Mom and Dad work most of the time, and Daniel spends most of his time with friends at their houses. It’ll be lonely without you.”

Soundwave stared at the little human. She could be hard to understand sometimes. This was one of those times. She’d obviously known her family for her whole life. She’d known him and his creations for a few months. “Negative. Soundwave: Does not know how to take care of organic life forms. New base: Will likely be unsafe. Nancy’s disappearance: Will be noticed and will result in searches that could uncover new base.”

Nancy pouted. “Can I come visit?”

“New base: Unsafe,” repeated Soundwave.

“Laserbeak or Ravage could take me there,” said Nancy. “Please!”

Soundwave vented. “Maybe.”

It was as good as either were going to get.

Silverbolt stretched awkwardly. He could not recall being in a similar situation to this…Having bandages all over his body and two casts was uncomfortable and restricting. Something about having his wing in a splint was making him panic in the back of his mind. He was going to have to keep from panicking until the bone was healed enough to remove the splint. The next few weeks were going to be very unpleasant.

“Here.” Ratchet shoved an energon cube into Silverbolt’s free hand. “That’ll have to do. I don’t have the supplies for additives right now.”

It had been a long time since Silverbolt had thought about consuming energon. He hadn’t even thought about it when Prowl started bringing the Dinobots’ energon because he’d been so used to organic food at that point. He sniffed the energon, took a bite…

…And promptly spat it out. Ratchet jumped back to avoid the mess. “What was that for?!”

“It tastes…” Silverbolt tried to think of an appropriate word. “…Bad. Tastes…not good.”

Ratchet frowned and snatched the cube away. He looked it over. The color was fine. He took a bite. It felt fine. “It’s perfectly fine.”

Silverbolt shook his head. “No. Not good.”

Ratchet raised an optic ridge. “You’re joking.”

Someone cleared their throat, causing Ratchet to look down. Sari held out a hand. “Let me try it.”

Ratchet shrugged. She’d been next as she likely had never had energon. He lowered the cube to her level, and Sari tore off a small amount. She sniffed it experimentally before taking a bite. She immediately gagged and spat it out. “Ugh! It tastes like throw up and old people smell!”

Ratchet stared at the energon. “It’s perfectly good energon…” It was their organic halves, it had to be. A Cybertronian wouldn’t have that reaction to energon. They wouldn’t even-Ratchet groaned at the realization. “Normal Cybertronians can’t taste or smell.” Energon probably did taste that way, and everyone else simply couldn’t tell. “I don’t suppose I can convince you to eat it anyway?”

“No way,” said Sari. “It tastes disgusting! Like something that would make you sick or even kill you.” Silverbolt nodded in agreement.

Ratchet muttered under his breath as he added that to a long list of issues that included fixing the ship, figuring out Prowl’s glitch, getting along with humans, and keeping an optic out for any Decepticons that were still around.

When did his life get so complicated?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _And now Butterflies presents: Questions and Answers with Vector Prime._
> 
> “This is the end of Season 1!” cheered KHGiggle. “We made it!”
> 
> Vector nodded. “Yes, good for you. Only three more to go.”
> 
> KHGiggle nodded. “I’ve got most of Season 2’s rough draft written up. A few more chapters, and it’ll be ready for editing.”
> 
> “KHGiggle has decided she needs to write out every season in its entirety before posting it,” explained Vector.
> 
> “Hey, in my earlier works, I could go months between updates, which caused all sorts of problems. It’ll also lessen the chances of plot holes or anything else that doesn’t make sense in context.”
> 
> “The next season will be posted once she’s done with this writing and editing,” continued Vector. “How long that will take is going to depend on several factors, including if she gets a job.”
> 
> “I need a job,” said KHGiggle. “I want to finish Season 2 and post it as soon as I can, but I need to make a living too.”
> 
> “We have also decided to make some changes. One of which is the name of this feature.” Vector gave KHGiggle a meaningful look.
> 
> KHGiggle laughed nervously. “I thought we’d get more reviews and questions. Oops?”
> 
> “Oops indeed.” Vector turned back to the readers. “If you have any suggestions you’d like to make go ahead and let us know. It’s unlikely, but you never know.”
> 
> KHGiggle waved at the readers. “So thanks for reading our story! Especially all you guys who reviewed and favorited and followed it! I hope we’ll see you again in the second season! Until then, take care!”
> 
> _This has been Questions and Answers with Vector Prime._

**Author's Note:**

> _And now, Butterflies presents Questions and Answers with Vector Prime_
> 
> The scene suddenly shifted to a large, white, gold, and red mech with an elegant design sitting on an armchair, drinking energon out of a goblet. “Greetings, I am Vector Prime, one of the original 13 and guardian of the time stream. I exist in all universes that have Transformers, and this one is no different. I’m sure most of you are aware of this.”
> 
> “What most of you are not aware of is the extent of my duties. Now, some are obvious, like making sure someone doesn’t try to destroy time. Others are…rather odd and unexpected. You see sometimes when authors decide to write a story, they unknowingly alter reality!” he shouted off screen.
> 
> “I said I was sorry!” shouted KHGiggle from outside the camera’s view. “How was I supposed to know writing it would make it real?”
> 
> Vector Prime turned his attention back to the reader. “I have to explain the differences they cause to make certain people back off so they can repair the damage they caused. I doubt anyone in the universes I actually live in are aware of this duty, and if I have anything to say about it, they never will.”
> 
> “Now, where to start…”
> 
> “No spoilers!” shouted KHGiggle.
> 
> Vector Prime sighed. “Yes, yes, I know, I’ve done this enough to know you author types don’t like giving things away.”
> 
> “Now, I think I’ll start the crew. Most are unchanged. One person has been removed and two have been added. Flareup got in trouble for blowing up her instructor’s living quarters. Wheeljack is there because he needed a break from Perceptor’s lack of emotions and Perceptor needed a break from his explosions. Since he got along with Ratchet, he figured he’d tag along.”
> 
> “Since Optimus wasn’t there, Wheeljack, who has quite a bit of security clearance as Perceptor’s assistant, was the one who had to contact Cybertron. He tried to contact Perceptor out of habit before contacting Autobot command.”
> 
> “Rodimus answered the distress call because Wheeljack used a different code than canon Optimus used.”
> 
> “The scene in the Nemesis was skipped because it was more or less the same. Same with young Isaac Sumdac discovering Megatron’s decapitated head.”
> 
> “The second time Megatron exploded was actually due to Flareup. Her unique mod is a gun that…is ripped off of Gantz.”
> 
> “It was a cool gun!” protested KHGiggle. “Besides, I wanted to give her something besides the standard flamethrower that you’d expect with her name.”
> 
> Vector Prime sighed. “Anyway, it doesn’t have the standard effect of a gun. Instead of shooting a laser, it shoots a type of energy that excites the molecules of whatever it hits, causing their speed to increase until the object explodes. It does not make any sounds or lights, so you can’t tell when she fires it, which is useful. She was aiming for his spark chamber, but he hit her with his sword just as she fired so the shot was sent askew and hit his already busted arm, which is what caused that second explosion.”
> 
> “Wheeljack’s mods have to do with constructing things and repairs. His only weapons are grenades that he makes when he’s bored. Even I’m worried by that.”
> 
> “Bumblebee knows how to weld because Ratchet taught him first aid. Think about it. His stingers are mainly used for welding when repairing machinery. Why wouldn’t he be able to do the same with other Cybertronians? Given, he doesn’t have any medical skills besides that, but he can at least keep anything from leaking out.”
> 
> “There is nothing odd about Megatron slicing off Flareup’s arm and stabbing Prowl through the chassis. He is a warlord. Killing others doesn’t bother him. Really, he would’ve killed everyone where they stood if he hadn’t exploded twice. He wasn’t operating at full capacity. Actually, he was aiming for Prowl’s spark chamber and thinks he hit it. That’s how out of it he was. He was just doing his best to avoid giving that away. Considering the damage he caused, I’d say he did a good job.”
> 
> Vector Prime paused and looked at a random floating clock. “I believe that is the last item of note before the chapter ended. I will return when I am next needed.”
> 
> “Send in questions!” shouted KHGiggle.
> 
> “…Yes, I will answer any questions about the story if you send them in a review. Make sure it isn’t a stupid question. This is trying enough as it is. Good bye and good day.”
> 
> _This has been Questions and Answers with Vector Prime._


End file.
